THE Union Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram, has emphasised
the need for greater cooperation among BRICS countries in the area of tax
administration. The Finance Minister reiterated the commitment of the Government
of India to a stable tax regime, moderate tax rates, non- adversarial tax
administration and a fair mechanism for dispute resolution. He added that India
has been modernizing its tax administration in a way that will minimize
transaction costs and maximize taxpayer convenience, without compromising the
deterrence factor.
The
Finance Minister was addressing the participants after inaugurating the meeting
of the Heads of the Revenue Departments of five BRICS countries, i.e., Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa here yesterday. The Finance Minister
stated that tax administrations are faced with new challenges that include
providing quality taxpayer services to take care of taxpayer expectations,
protecting and increasing domestic tax revenues, and allocation of taxing rights
and sharing of taxable income from cross border dealings between
countries.
This
two day meeting, the first of its kind, aims at enhancing the co-operation among
tax administrations of BRICS countries. The respective country delegations are
being led by Mr. Carlos Alberto Freitas Barreto, Secretary, Federal Revenue of
Brazil, Mr. Aleksey Overchuk, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Tax Service of
Russia, Mr. Xiao Jie, Commissioner of State Administration of Taxation, China,
Mr. Oupa Magashula, Commissioner, South Africa and Sumit Bose, the Revenue
Secretary of India. Dr. Poonam Kishore Saxena, Chairperson, CBDT, Ms. Promila
Bhardwaj, Director General (International Tax), Mr K. Ramalingam and Mr Sanjay
Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretaries are part of the Indian delegation.
During the two day meeting, the participants are likely to deliberate on
issues of mutual concerns related to tax administration, including those
pertaining to international taxation, transfer pricing, cross border tax evasion
and avoidance, tax dispute resolution mechanisms. The meeting is being hosted by
India, which presently holds the chair of the BRICS group.
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