India signs up to Europe's anti-corruption plan

LONDON: India has joined a group of nearly 40 nations that have signed a Europe-led clampdown on tax evasion and corruption, committing to automatically exchange information on beneficial ownership, the UK government said.

"The following countries have committed to the initiative to automatically exchange information on beneficial ownership. The next stage will be for the development of a global standard for this exchange," said a release yesterday by the UK's Treasury Department with a list of all those signed up.

Besides India, some of the other countries outside Europe on the list include Afghanistan, Nigeria, Mexico and the UAE.

The initiative aims to develop a global standard for the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership data between law enforcement agencies and tax authorities of partner countries.

"This will mean that everyone in the world will be able to see who really owns and controls each and every company in these countries," Cameron had said last month when he had announced the new initiative at the Anti-Corruption Summit 2016 here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an election pledge in 2014 to recover billions of dollars sent to tax havens abroad to avoid income tax. The move is seen as a step in that direction.

Most European countries except Switzerland are signed up to this automatic exchange mechanism.

Earlier this week, Switzerland had agreed to work with Indian authorities to tackle tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts.