ANTAIYA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called for greater international cooperation for return of illicit money to the country of origin and urged leaders to address the barriers of excessive banking secrecy, and complex legal and regulatory frameworks.
In his speech at the G20 session on ‘Enhancing Resilience’, Modi said all countries should implement the Common Reporting Standard based on Automatic Exchange of Tax Information. He detailed the steps being taken by the government to tackle black money and corruption and called upon the G20 to continue to give priority to combating corruption.
“In India, my government has zero tolerance on corruption and black money. We have enacted a new law to deal with undisclosed assets and income kept abroad. We have also entered into a number of bilateral tax treaties,” said Modi.
“We have also launched an effective drive against domestic unaccounted money. We will soon bring out a legislation on public procurement,” said the PM.
He said the government and the central bank were taking steps to further strengthen the financial and banking sector but added that higher capital requirements should not become a constraint on promoting financial inclusion or functioning of the banking sector in developing countries. “Indeed, effective supervision and better use of technology can reduce capital requirements. Cyber security is important for the protection of the banking infrastructure,” said the PM.
Modi said the International Monetary Fund should remain a quota based institution and not depend on borrowed resources. India has been pushing for quota and governance reforms at the IMF to better reflect the global economic realities but the US is yet to ratify the agreed reforms.
“I hope that the ratification of the reforms of 2010 in the United States would be completed at the earliest,” said Modi as he complimented the Turkish presidency for delivering the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting package for endorsement within the agreed timeframe.
The PM called for deepening cooperation against terrorism financing, including through targeted financial sanctions and more effective counter-terrorism financing tools. “Country specific reports of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) should be shared and FATF should work out a mechanism to work with deficient countries,” said Modi.