Black money trail: Govt negotiating agreements with tax-haven territories

AHMEDABAD: In order to curb the black money stashed by Indians in overseas banks, the Government of India has identified 22 "non-cooperative" tax havens, and is negotiating tax insulation exchange agreements with them, a senior official said here today.

"For discouraging transactions with non-cooperative tax havens, India has taken a major step forward. We identified 22 jurisdictions for signing `tax insulation exchange agreements' and negotiations with 11 are already complete," Chief Commissioner of Customs, Gujarat Zone, Lipika Majumdar Roy Choudhary, said at a function organised by CII here.

Choudhary was a part of the Indian team working under the Union Ministry of Finance that made the preparations before India joined the Financial Action Task Force last year.

"The tax insulation exchange agreements have already been signed with Isle Of Man, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas," she said.

FATF is an inter-governmental body whose purpose is to develop and promote national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.