Panama papers: India joins global task force

NEW DELHI: India joined a meeting of a global taskforce on shared intelligence and collaboration to pursue progress on the Panama papers investigations.

“Based on legal instruments under the OECD and Council of Europe Multilateral Convention and tax treaties, a number of countries shared information in confidential competent authorities sessions, on structures that facilitate, enable and promote tax avoidance, evasion. India also shared its experience in this regard,“ an official statement said on Tuesday.

Panama Papers are leaked documents from a Panama law firm -Mossack Fonseca, which has offices in 35 countries. It has 11.5 million documents involving 2,14,000 offshore entities covering a time period between 1977 and 2015.The Panama Papers reveal names of 140 political figures from 50 countries with links to offshore accounts. These include 12 current or former heads of state as well as sportspersons, administrators and 29 billionaires from the Forbes rich list.

The statement said that in the past six months, more than 570 requests for information have been sent to 32 countries. India has also sent several requests to various jurisdictions in the Panama papers cases since January this year. Collaboration with JITSIC has been useful for India in its fight against offshore tax evasion.

“Demonstrating the value and strength of JITSIC (Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration), 30 project participant countries have continued to exchange, analyse and act on information about taxpayers and intermediaries connected to Mossack Fonseca,“ the statement said.

JITSIC members have established the capability to allow for fast, effective and coordinated multilateral responses to any future data leaks and are sharing the details.“JITSIC will continue to identify more arrangements as countries continue their investigations and share intelligence and new data comes to light,“ the statement added.