India presses for auto info exchange to deal with black money

India has called for expeditious implementation of the automatic exchange of tax information saying it would help in tracking illegal money stashed in foreign banks.

Raising the issue at the recently concluded meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and central bank governors here, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha advocated "full and fast implementation" of Automatic Exchange of Information within the agreed time-frame.

"This would help India to trace transactions of money illegally earned or stashed in foreign banks without paying appropriate taxes in the countries where those transactions took place," Sinha said.

During his intervention, Sinha expressed concern over the unconventional monetary policies adopted by a number of advanced economies.

He emphasised on the need for having an effective mechanism to deal with negative spillovers that may arise due to these policies or due to unexpected and disorderly withdrawal of these policies in future.

"I highlighted paradox of Quantitative Easing in the US, Japan, EU (and that) results in tightening of long term investment flows in emerging markets due to QE exit worries," he said in a tweet.

Sinha also raised the issue of quota reforms at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a view to increase the representation of developing countries in the multilateral lending agency.

"India called for strengthening the IMF through implementing the 2010 quota and governance reforms and creating an environment for multilateral swaps to overcome such negative impact," Sinha said.

The quota reform, if implemented, will increase India's voting share in IMF from the current 2.44 per cent to 2.75 per cent, following which the country will become the eighth largest quota holder at the IMF, up from the 11th position.