India to press for tax info sharing at G20

To facilitate the recovery of black money stashed abroad, India will press for automatic exchange of information and past banking details at the G20 summit of finance ministers and central bank governors in Paris.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to oppose suggestions to introduce a financial transaction tax, commonly known as tobin tax.

During his two-day visit (October 14-15), Mukherjee will urge the G20 to impress upon member countries, especially tax havens, the need for uninterrupted flow of information related to black money and terrorism financing.

"One of our concerns is money stashed abroad. At the London summit, there was a declaration by G20 the age of secrecy was over and it would be easy to share information. But, we are finding it not so easy. A fine distinction is made between tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax fraud. We are saying there should be automatic exchange of information," a finance

ministry official told reporters accompanying the finance minister to the summit.

The official said the recovery of money stashed abroad was not being raised as aggressively by any other country as by India.

Europe is likely to dominate the agenda at the conference. The global economy will be a major area of discussion.

Cooperative efforts among G20 countries to resolve short-term issues, the international monetary system and volatility in commodity prices will be prominent issues.

"We have to see whether the available resources are enough to deal with the euro zone crisis… The Europeans have to fix it themselves. It is a problem too big for the IMF," said the official.

The G20 has trebled support to the IMF to $750 billion. But it has not raised support to the World Bank, which provides funds to developing countries. India's contribution to the IMF has been $14 billion in the past three years.

Mukherjee may call for striking a fine balance between short-run and long-run measures to restore market confidence.