The OECD's new 'blacklist' of tax havens will do nothing to help poor countries recover the $160 billion that is stolen from them every year by tax-dodging multinationals, warns Christian Aid.
'The list is just a useless piece of paper for developing countries. They urgently need a new global system which helps them collect the tax revenues that are rightly theirs, in order to provide basic public services for their people,' says Christian Aid's tax specialist Dr David McNair.
'Only rich countries will gain from the 'naming and shaming' plan unveiled by the G20, because only they have enough tax officials and other resources to pursue tax dodgers using the bilateral tax treaties on which the plan rests.
'We need to make sure that G20 leaders deliver on what they said in their communiqué, in which they committed themselves to making new proposals for action against tax evasion that will benefit everyone, not just the rich. We will be looking to Gordon Brown to take a lead on this.'
Over the coming months, Christian Aid will be pressing the case for the creation of a much more powerful weapon against tax dodgers worldwide - one which will benefit poor and rich countries alike.
'What that means in practice is a system open to all countries, through which they automatically exchange tax information with each other, with sanctions against those which do not comply,' adds Dr McNair.
'Only this will help countries which are too poor and politically weak to obtain the information they need in order to stop tax dodgers robbing their public services.'
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Larry Dinger (L), Charge dÂ’Affaires of the Yangon-based US embassy, hands over rice to a beneficiary at the World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution camp in Gaw Tu Wai Chaung, Labutta ...
