India, Monaco ink tax information exchange agreement

NEW DELHI: India has entered into an agreement with Monaco for exchange of information that will allow the two countries to check tax evasion and money laundering.

"Government of India and Government of Principality of Monaco have signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) yesterday," an official statement said today.

This is the ninth TIEA being signed by India. Under the agreement with Monaco, 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 said.

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 tax appeal, it added.

The agreement was signed by the Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam from Indian side and Counsellor of Government for Finances and Economy Marco Piccinini from Monaco's side.