Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday there was an urgent need to relook the existing provision of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on sharing banking data so that past information could also be shared among countries.
Mukherjee said the banking system was still opaque in various non-tax and low-tax jurisdictions. Despite efforts made at the global level and statements issued by G-20 leaders at their London summit in April 2009, ?we cannot say with certainty that the bank secrecy is over in all cases,? he said.
The minister added that while some countries had accepted to end bank secrecy in general, many had agreed to do so only from a prospective date and were not willing to exchange past banking information. Such issues put a question mark on the efficacy of the present legal provisions for exchange of banking information, he added. Sharing past information could be a boost in efforts to track the black money stashed abroad by Indians.
The OECD is a 34-member grouping of developed and developing countries and has been playing a key role in reforming the international taxation system. It advocates exchange of information between tax authorities in cases of specific enquiries.
Referring to the issues concerning transfer-pricing, the minister said, ?This abusive behaviour is robbing developing countries of their scarce resources, which is required for financing development programmes.?
Dismissing fears of an economic slowdown , Mukherjee said India?s growth drivers remained broadly intact. ?I am confident that we are in a position to sustain high economic growth in the coming years and create a more inclusive outcome for our society,? he added.
India aims to grow at 9% -9.5% during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, starting April 2012. ?It would imply raising the average growth rate by at least one percentage point from 8.2%, which is likely to be realised in the Eleventh Plan,? he said. Mukherjee further said the government was committed to policy reforms.
Speaking at the conference, OECD secretary general Angel Gurria said the European debt crisis was being seen limited to Ireland, Greece and Portugal. He did not expect any other European country other than to seek aid.