THE
sixth meeting of the Group on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI Group)
of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes
(Global Forum) will be held in New Delhi on 3rd and 4th December, 2015 at
the Shangri-La Hotel. The meeting will be inaugurated by the
Minister of State for Finance, Mr Jayant Sinha. The last meeting of the
AEOI Group was held at Barbados on 26th and 27th October, 2015.
The G20 countries have requested the Global Forum to take on the work of implementation
of the new global standard on automatic exchange of information namely the
Common Reporting Standard (CRS) on AEOI. The Global Forum established an AEOI
Group in consequence of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration in September, 2013 with
a view to establish a mechanism to monitor and review the implementation of
the new global standard on automatic exchange of information. India joined
this Group and has also been elected as a Vice-Chair. The AEOI Group, which
now has 64 member countries, is mandated to develop a methodology for the review
through a transparent process in which all Global Forum members participate
on an equal footing.
One of the key areas on which specific reviews will be carried out relate
to “confidentiality and data safeguards” to be completed by 2016 for all the
jurisdictions which have committed to the new standards. This specific review
was found necessary since the consensus view was that AEOI requires large volume
of data being exchanged at once and the consequences of a breach of confidentiality
are more serious and thus the supplying country must have a sufficient level
of confidence that the data is safe with the receiving country.
In the New Delhi meeting, reports assessing confidentiality and data safeguards
in 32 countries/jurisdictions, including India, will be discussed and considered
for approval. The AEOI Group will also further discuss the process of monitoring
and implementation of the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) on AEOI including
the process of staged implementation of the standards.
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