India inks pact with BV Islands for tax information exchange

NEW DELHI: India has entered into a pact with the British Virgin Islands for exchange of information to check tax evasion and money laundering.

This is the third Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) -- as it is known in the parlance of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) -- signed by India.

"India and British Virgin Islands have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) in London yesterday," an official statement said today.

Earlier, India signed a TIEA with Bermuda on October 7, 2010. More recently, it inked one with the Isle of Man last week.

Under the agreement, there is a specific provision for providing banking and ownership information and the requesting state has to provide some minimum details about the information requested.

"Information must be foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of the domestic laws of the contracting parties concerning taxes and tax matters covered by the agreement," the statement added.

However, information is to be treated as secret and can be disclosed to only specified person or authorities, which are tax authorities or the authorities concerned with the determination of a tax appeal.

The agreement also allows for exchange of past information in criminal tax matters.

The agreement was signed by Nalin Surie, the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, and Dancia Penn OBE, QC, the Deputy Premier of the British Virgin Islands.