India improves position in financial transparency

NEW DELHI: India has made significant progress in the past two years in financial transparency. According to the global financial secrecy index (FSI) report released by Tax Justice Network (TJN), India ranked 45 in the list of 92 countries in 2015 in comparison to 32 in 2013, which is seen as a big jump.

The ranking takes into account the processes put in place to bring transparency and reduce secrecy around financial dealings.

The Centre has taken several steps to crack down on black money and illicit wealth including stringent laws to blunt illegal wealth stashed overseas. It has also signed agreements with several foreign countries for exchange of information and is also bringing a legislation to tackle domestic black money .

The report says that Switzerland, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Singapore, Germany , USA and Cayman Islands continue to find place among the top 10 nations with poor financial transparency regime. Japan and Jersey have been replaced in the top 10 by Bahrain and UAE, particularly Dubai, in 2015.

"Most countries' secrecy scores have improved. Real action is being taken to curb financial secrecy, as the Organisation for Economic Development ( OECD) rolls out a system of automatic information exchange (AIE) where countries share relevant information to tackle tax evasion. The EU is starting to crack open shell companies by creating central registers of beneficial owners and making that information available. The EU is also requiring multinationals to provide country-by-country financial data," the report said.

However, the independent think tank has claimed that these global and regional initiatives continue to be flawed and face sabotage by lobbies that have already weakened them.

The report raised serious concern over the USA's ranking rising from sixth to third place between 2013 and 2015.