Mumbai, December 06, 2016
The Heads of Revenue of the BRICS countries, namely the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa held a meeting on 5-6 December, 2016 in Mumbai to discuss the potential areas of cooperation and exchange opinions and views based on their existing commitment to openness, solidarity, equality, mutual understanding, inclusiveness and mutually beneficial cooperation.
The meeting saw discussions amongst BRICS Experts on Tax matters on contemporary and relevant topics such as sharing of best practices in BRICS countries on improving compliance through non instrusive means, progress and issues arising out of implementation of BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) action point 13 relating to country by country reporting and also the role of United Nations in becoming the voice of developing and emerging economies in setting international tax rules.
The Heads of Revenue also issued a joint communiqué at the end of the meeting that expressed their continued support to all international initiatives towards reaching a globally fair and universally transparent tax system. They reiterated their commitment to actions taken to ensure the fairness of the international tax system particularly towards prevention of base erosion and shifting of profits, exchange of tax information and capacity building of developing countries.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting Revenue Secretary, Mr. Hasmukh Adhia said that in international fora BRICS have to protect the interest of developing countries. He informed that next year the meeting of Heads of Revenue and Experts on Tax Matters will be held in China and the topics of special importance for the meeting will be - Black Money and the issue of widening the tax net. Mr. Adhia emphasised that BRICS is the most powerful international block as 50% of the world’s population lives in these five countries and when the entire world is passing through a strugglingnh GDP phase BRICS countries are the 5 brightest spots in the world economy.
