Jaitley to visit Paris on June 7, sign OECD convention on tax evasion

The Dollar Business Bureau 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be travelling to Paris to sign the multilateral convention of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), next week. The convention is aimed at checking cross-border evasion of taxes by multinational companies (MNCs). 

During the 3-day visit beginning June 7, the Finance Minister will also join the Ministerial Council Meeting, which will be attended by ministers from OECD countries and other partner countries to deliberate upon issues of global importance. 

Earlier this month, the Union Cabinet had given the approval for signing the OECD’s multilateral convention. 

The convention is a result of the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project between OECD and G-20, to tackle what is used by MNCs via tax planning strategies by abusing gaps and disparities in tax laws.

It helps them in artificially shifting their profits to the locations which have low or no-tax, thus resulting in little or no total tax being paid.

Once this multilateral convention comes into operation, it will make sure that the provisions of a bilateral tax treaty are read in combination with corresponding provisions in Multilateral Instrument, in addition to the related country reservations.

More than 100 countries and jurisdictions have completed discussions on the Multilateral Instrument and an official inking of the convention will happen on June 7 in Paris.

The Multilateral Instrument also provides an option to every country to choose the provision needed for adopting in its tax treaty.

Jaitley will also attend the Ministerial Council Meeting of OECD, to have talks on a new inclusive-growth description focussed on improving the well-being of all in digitised and open economies and describe a more people-centred methodology to global standard-setting.