TAX NEWS - June 2010

India Tax: Eight More Tax Units Abroad To Fight Tax Evasion

India Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Wednesday that his ministry would set up eight more overseas tax units to fight tax-evasion, as increasing cross-border trade of goods and services was throwing up new and complex challenges, say reports.

Addressing the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors-general of income tax in New Delhi, he said the development of tax-shelter products and use of tax havens were two more challenges thrown up by globalization. He added that the government had set up two income tax overseas units within in Singapore and Mauritius to facilitate the exchange of information. The new offices would come up in France, the UAE, USA, Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, Cyprus and Germany.

He hoped that these measures would result in a seamless flow of tax related information from foreign tax jurisdictions, strengthening the fight against tax-evasion, using cross-border transactions.