Finance Minister P Chidambaram today emphasised the need for greater cooperation among Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries in the area of tax administration and reiterated India’s commitment to a stable tax regime.
Just few weeks ahead of the Budget 2013-14, he said the government was committed to moderate tax rates, non-adversarial tax administration and a fair mechanism for dispute resolution.
The finance minister added tax administrations are faced with new challenges that include providing quality taxpayer services, protecting and increasing domestic tax revenues, and allocation of taxing rights and sharing of taxable income from cross border dealings between countries.
Addressing the participants after inaugurating the meeting of the Heads of the Revenue Departments of five Brics countries, he said India has been modernizing its tax administration in a way that will minimize transaction costs and maximize taxpayer convenience, without compromising the deterrence factor.
Chidambaram stated that it would be a good idea to hold deliberations and even try to come out with agreed stands on issues of mutual concerns so that Brics countries can play a more proactive role in modifying and developing existing international standards on international taxation and transfer pricing in order to safeguard their tax revenue interests. He felt that this meeting can help in developing a roadmap for such coordination.
The meeting aims at enhancing the co-operation among tax administrations of Brics countries. The respective country delegations are being led by Carlos Alberto Freitas Barreto, Secretary, Federal Revenue of Brazil; Aleksey Overchuk, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Tax Service of Russia; Xiao Jie, Commissioner of State Administration of Taxation, China; Oupa Magashula, Commissioner, South Africa and Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary of India.
Poonam Kishore Saxena, Chairperson, CBDT; Promila Bhardwaj, Director General (International Tax); K Ramalingam and 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.
