As many as 10 countries are providing information to India on an automatic basis for tax administration purposes, the Finance Secretary, Mr R.S. Gujral, said here on Wednesday. This includes banking-related information, he added.
The Centre's recent efforts to revise existing double taxation avoidance pacts will show results (through revenue mop-up after tracking black money) in five years, he said at a press conference after the opening of an international tax conference here.
When asked if India was getting information under the renegotiated double tax avoidance agreements (DTAAs), Mr Gujral said, “The answer is yes”. He, however, declined to name the countries or the revenues mobilised from such information sharing with India.
Under international tax agreements, exchange of information between countries usually happens in three ways – on request, spontaneously or on automatic basis.
India has, in the last two years, taken steps to renegotiate DTAAs with several countries, besides entering into tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) with many ‘tax havens'. It has concluded negotiations with 17 jurisdictions/countries for TIEAs, of which seven have been signed.
At present, India has DTAAs with 81 countries, of which 75 do not have a specific paragraph for exchange of banking information. All these have been picked up for renegotiation.
Mr Gujral was confident that information exchange following renegotiated DTAAs and new TIEAs would yield rich dividends to the country in terms of higher revenue mop up in the next five years.