Pranab to press for sharing of banking, tax info at G-20

New Delhi, Oct 13: The Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, will press for automatic sharing of banking and tax-related information among nations to check the menace of black money and terror funding at the two-day G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors beginning Friday (Oct 14) at Paris.

“Tax evasion and illicit flows have posed serious challenges to the world economy," a government release said, adding that the Minister will impress upon the member nations to voluntarily adopt a mechanism for exchange of information.

Pranab Mukherjee will leave for Paris this evening to attend the G-20 ministerial meeting which, among other things, will endeavour to formulate a strategy to combat the global economic problems.

Formed in 1999, G-20, a club of rich and developing nations, accounts for 85 per cent of global output and two thirds of the world"s population.

The G-20 ministerial is precursor to the Cannes Summit during which the leaders are expected to announce concrete steps to deal with the current global problems.

During his interventions at the ministerial, the Finance Minister will also ask the G-20 members to persuade tax havens to regularly share information relating to black money and terror financing.

As regards the global economy, he is likely to pitch for striking a fine balance between short-run and long-run measures to restore the confidence of markets.

Besides the issues concerning the global economy, the G-20 ministerial will also discuss a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, reforms of International Monetary System (IMS), financial regulations, climate change and innovative financing.

The agenda of the meeting also includes extensive discussion on the World Bank"s report — 'Rebalancing, growth and development: An inter-connected agenda".

During his stay in Paris, Pranab Mukherjee will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from France, Australia and UK among others. He will return on October 16.

PTI