Mumbai: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA)
have signed an agreement to cooperate on administration
of tax and customs duties to boost trade and economic
ties among the three countries.
Under
the agreement, revenue authorities of the three countries
would exchange information to help identify high-risk
transactions and speed up processing of imports and
exports. The authorities would also share information
on tax, particularly the abuse of tax avoidance arrangements
and schemes.
The
agreement was signed in Pretoria by India''s revenue
secretary K M Chandrasekhar, South Africa''s receiver
of revenue Pravin Gordhan and Brazil''s federal revenue
secretary Jorge Rachid at the close of a three-day inaugural
meeting of the IBSA heads of revenue administrations.
The
three countries have agreed to set up an IBSA Revenue
Administration Working Group to further improve cooperation
among the respective revenue authorities, Gordhan said.
"The
main agreement also seeks to thwart smuggling, drug
trafficking, fraud and tax avoidance in the three nations,"
he said, adding, "Where appropriate, we have agreed
to perform simultaneous tax audits on common business
entities."
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