What is the Convention on Global Tax Co-operation ?
India on Nov.4 2011 signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters,developed jointly by the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD. All members of the G20 have now become signatories to the Convention which will have to be ratified by the Indian Parliament to become law.
Speaking at the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh called on world leaders to address the problem of tax havens and illicit money outflows. “Tax evasion and illicit flows have seen the migration of tax bases in developing countries abroad and are serious problems,” the Prime Minister told the 6th G20 Summit here.
Basic Objectives:
1-The Convention facilitates international co-operation for a better operation of the fundamental rights of taxpayers.
2-The Convention provides for all possible forms of administrative co-operation between states in the assessment and collection of taxes, in particular with a view to combating tax avoidance and evasion.
3- This co-operation ranges from exchange of information, including automatic exchanges to the recovery of foreign tax claims.
4-The Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters offers a wide range of tools for cross-border tax co-operation.
5-It includes automatic exchange of information, multilateral simultaneous tax examinations and international assistance in the collection of tax due.
At the same time, the Convention imposes safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information exchanged. The relevance of the convention lies in the context of growing economic offences especially in India .
New global Internet Governance Mechanism
India recently presented to the United Nations a proposal for the establishment of a Committee for Internet-Related Policies (CIRP) for giving push to a new global internet mechanism. This committee will help to frame international public policies on issues relating to Internet governance.
The proposal , formally submitted to the 66th session of the U. N. General Assembly contains the following format-
1-The United Nations Committee for Internet-Related Policies should consist of 50 member-states, “chosen elected on the basis of equitable geographical representation” and four advisor groups, one each for civil society, the private sector, the inter-governmental and international organizations and the technical and academic community.
2-The advisory groups will provide “inputs and recommendations to the CIRP”. “The CIRP will report directly to the General Asembly and present recommendations consideration, adoption and dissemination among all relevant inter-governmental bodies and international organizations” .
Encephalitis-problem and strategy:
Problem
Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) poses a serious challenge before the government. The disease is now being reported from 135 districts of 17 States, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in addition to the northern belt. Already 861 lives have been lost to the disease, over 470 of them in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone. The disease has become an annual affair in Purvanchal since 2005.
The disease affects mostly children below the age of 15 years, of which 25 per cent die,and among the survivors about 30-40 per cent suffer from physical and mental impairment. Between 70 and 75 per cent of the cases are reported from Uttar Pradesh.
1. The central Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted in Nov.2011 held its meeting to discuss short , medium, and long-term measures needed to deal with the disease.
2. The Centre wants the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to conduct a systematic survey to estimate disability burden establish rehabilitation units at district level, set up special schools for mentally challenged children in JE/AES-affected areas and fix monthly compensation for below poverty line families having children with disabilities due to JE/AES.
3. The Ministers, agreed that schools could be used as platforms for the vaccination drives while HUPA would be involved in checking the spread of the disease in urban slums.
4. The GoM was in agreement on the issue that a “multipronged strategy encompassing prevention, case management and rehbilitation measures are needed to deal with it”. This could be implemented only through the active engagement of various Ministries.
