By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – India has provided a voluntary contribution of US $100,000 to encourage the participation of developing countries in the work of a key UN committee on tax matters tasked with finding ways of mobilizing resources for sustainable development.
This is the second year India has contributed to the UN Tax Trust Fund and is still the only country that has funded so far. The Fund aims to support the work of the UN Tax Committee.
The Committee is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC). It deals with key issues that could help developing countries to unleash their potential to achieve sustainable development through technical support on areas such as double taxation treaties, transfer pricing (profit shifting) taxation of the extractive industries and taxation of services.
India’s contribution is a response to the call of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which was adopted at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in 2015, to further resource mobilization in support of sustainable development and which reiterated a request for countries to make contributions to the UN Tax Trust Fund.
In Addis Ababa, UN Member States committed to work together to enhance the UN Tax Committee’s resources to strengthen its effectiveness and operational capacity. The Addis Agenda also specifically called on the Member States to support the UN Tax Committee and its subsidiary bodies through the voluntary Trust Fund, supporting the increased participation of developing country experts at subcommittee meetings.
The Trust Fund for International Cooperation in Tax Matters was established in July 2006, in order to support the activities of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.
The Fund now seeks voluntary contributions, in order to support the activities of the Committee’s active Subcommittees, including the updates to the United Nations Model Double Taxation Convention between Developed and Developing Countries and the Manual for the Negotiation of Bilateral Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries, preparation of the United Nations Manual on Transfer Pricing, as well as making recommendations on capacity-building and providing technical assistance.
India is also supporting developing countries through the India‑United Nations Development Partnership Fund. The Fund aims at supporting sustainable development for low-income nations with 22 projects having already been approved in 25 partner countries ranging from hurricane rehabilitation and climate early warning system to government accountability and agriculture.
Managed by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, the Fund seeks to assist projects for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in partner countries. South-South cooperation in the UN context refers to the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge between developing countries.
Speaking at an event marking the first anniversary of the India‑United Nations Development Partnership Fund in New York early June 2018, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres commended India’s “very important role in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals“.
Guterres said: “Even before the Goals were crystallized, India’s own development efforts and vision reflected many of the same priorities and aspirations.” He added: “India is, for all of us, a very important inspiration.”
In the third year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN chief thanked India for its “strong commitment to multilateralism and to partnership with the United Nations.”
The partnership, he said, is expressed in many ways across the global agenda “and which we see again through the activities of this important Fund.” The Fund, he added, shows “the further deepening of South‑South cooperation,” which is “an increasingly valuable dimension of our work for development.”
But this is also the moment to remind that South‑South cooperation is not an instrument aiming at replacing North‑South cooperation, said Guterres. “South‑South cooperation is not an instrument for the commitments that were made by developed countries now to be put aside,” he warned.
“South-South cooperation must be a stimulus for an intensified North‑South cooperation, for the Addis Ababa Agenda to be fully implemented and for everybody to assume their responsibilities in the context of a world in which we want a fair globalization, in which justice prevails in international relations,” the UN Chief declared. [IDN-InDepthNews – 05 July 2018]
Photo: India makes voluntary contribution for the second consecutive year to UN Tax Trust Fund. 03 July 2018. Credit: UN DESA
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