Black money: India backs convention

• India has ratified an international convention on taxation which will help the country in bringing back illegal funds stashed abroad
• India became the 13th country and the first non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) nation to ratify the ‘Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters,' which seeks to promote transparency and exchange of tax-related information.
• The Convention, a Ministry release said, “also provides for assistance in the recovery of taxes. This will give a fillip to the efforts of the government in bringing the Indian money illegally stashed abroad.”
• It will also allow India to seek past information in criminal tax matters.
• “A party to the Convention is compulsorily required to exchange the past information in criminal matters for at least three years ...” the release said.
• The convention, it said, explicitly provided for automatic and spontaneous exchange of information and would permit tax officials to enter the territory of the other country to examine individuals and records.