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Malta appointed on OECD task force on harmful tax practices
Malta has been appointed on a task force set up by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) responsible
to curb harmful tax practices by certain offshore financial
centres.
The task force, made up of 13 countries, was set up during a
OECD meeting held over the last few days on the Caribbean island
of Barbados. Malta, through Finance Minister John Dalli, will
be representing the Commonwealth countries.
During the Commonwealth finance ministers’ meeting held
in Malta in September 2000, a decision was taken to hold a meeting
with the OECD to clarify matters on how the organisation meant
to tackle the so-called “tax havens”. A decision was
taken to set up a task force in the beginning of 2001. Representatives
of wealthy nations and Caribbean and other small nations branded
as tax havens agreed to set up the task force in order to find
ways to reform offshore financial centres.
The agreement came at the end of a two-day meeting that began
with small nations angrily accusing the OECD of trampling on
their sovereignty and trying to dictate tax policy to them.
Announcing the task force, Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur
said all sides agreed on the need for exchange of information
and transparency in the offshore centres’ dealings and
the need to do away with discriminatory practices. The development
left in limbo a July deadline declared earlier by the OECD for
35 countries and territories on a blacklist to agree to cooperate
with it or risk sanctions. The Prime Minister of Barbados said
the work of the task force, if successful, would replace an
OECD timetable, contained in a Memorandum of Understanding delivered
to the tax havens in November, which gave them five years to
complete compliance with its demands.
The task force, comprising members of the OECD, Caribbean and
Pacific countries or territories, and the Commonwealth, to which
many of them belong, would start work immediately so that it
could contribute to a meeting of the OECD and Pacific nations
in Tokyo in February.
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