Brisbane, November 16
Leaders at the G20 Summit today endorsed India’s concerns over black money and tax avoidance as they promised to modernise global tax rules and begin automatic exchange of tax information by 2018-end. The government called the outcome an “unprecedented success”.

On the second and final day of the summit, Modi reiterated his call for close policy coordination among major economies, saying this was important not just for addressing the challenge of black money, but also to battle terrorism, drug trafficking and arms smuggling.

Addressing a G20 session, “Delivering Global Economic Resilience”, the Prime Minister also voiced support for a new global automatic exchange of information, saying it would be instrumental in getting data about unaccounted money stashed abroad and help bring it back. The PM, while flagging his concern over cross-border tax avoidance and evasion, also noted that increased mobility of capital and technology have created new opportunities for avoiding tax and profit sharing.

In a joint communique issued at the end of the summit, the leaders said: “We welcome the significant progress on the G20/OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan to modernise international tax rules.” The BEPS refers to the effect of tax avoidance strategies adopted by multinational companies on countries’ tax basis.

“We are committed to finalising this work in 2015, including transparency of taxpayer-specific rulings found to constitute harmful tax practices. We will begin to exchange information automatically with each other and with other countries by 2017 or end-2018,” it stated. PM’s interlocutor at G8 Suresh Prabhu and MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin termed the outcome an “unprecedented success”. — Agencies