WHEN the entire global economy faces financial distress due to fiscal deficit and debt crisis, quite ironically, shocking reports indicate that trillions of dollars are lying parked in various offshore tax havens. These reports are an outcome of a global campaign initiated by the leaders of G20 group in 2009 London summit, to tax this money lying hidden in tax havens. Tax Justice Network (TJN), a campaign group, have given an estimation that as much as $32 trillion of financial assets could be sheltered in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax.

Mr. Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of a Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at OECD has urged the requirement of more transparent laws, exchange of information and lesser stringent secrecy laws for tracking this money to bring them within the tax net. As per Mr. Saint Amans, there are 89 countries on the OECD’s “white list” of jurisdictions that have implemented internationally agreed tax standards, which was not the case untill 2009, a great positive change necessary for the success of anti-tax evasion campaign. The Western tax authorities have also taken recourse to amnesties for targeting its own citizens who have parked huge amounts in accounts in jurisdictions such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein.