Union Finance Minister ArunJaitleyon a 10-day itinerary to the US to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, a UN session on the drugs problem, and an interaction with American investors.
- He was accompanied by Reserve Bank of India Governor RaghuramRajan and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and some Indian Delegations.
FM ArunJaitley addresses World Bank in Washington:
- In the 93rd meeting of Development Committee of the World Bank in Washington Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphasized that India has shaped itself a favorable
investment across all sectors which has resulted in an immense increase in FDI in the last couple of years.
investment across all sectors which has resulted in an immense increase in FDI in the last couple of years.Words from the Finance Minister:
- India became 7th largest FDI destination in the World, the FDI inflows into India has witnessed hefty increases of over 30-40 per cent in last two years.
- Jailtly also asked the World Bank to escalate its developmental fund to USD 100 billion a year from the current USD 50-60 billion.
Sixth Annual Ministerial Meeting of India- US Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP):
The meeting aims to form a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) must safeguard effective implementation of legislation relating to terrorist financing and take solid action against countries sponsoring terrorism and hosting terrorist infrastructure.
- Arun Jaitley participated in the Sixth Annual Ministerial Meeting of India and US Economic & Financial Partnership.
- The two sides pledged resolve bilateral tax disputes between the United States and India.
- Both the sides has also been made in sharing of financial information between the two countries under the Inter-Governmental Agreement, pursuant to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting:
The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, chaired the BRICS FMs and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting and discussed various issues viz,
- Global Economy,
- Structural Reforms,
- Voice Reforms of IMF and World Bank
- Various Ongoing Initiatives.
He expressed satisfaction that two key initiatives of BRICS that have become fully operational.
- Contingent Reserve Arrangement.
- New Development Bank.
China based NDB’s Board of Governors noted that the Bank has begun operations through approval of the maiden projects on April 13, 2016.
- The NDB has approved four green renewable energy projects from India, China, Brazil and South Africa entailing Bank financing of USD 811 million.
India joins G20 in fighting tax evasion, terror funding
- India has joined the G20 leadership in fighting money laundering, tax evasion and terror financing.
- It intend with all the tax havens to become transparent in this regard and share information.
- To improve transparency in the global financial system and also to prevent the misuse of such entities for illegal acts such as corruption, tax evasion, terror financing and money laundering.
- All countries including India’s jurisdictions must become members of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering that was established at the 1989-G7 Summit in Paris.
- The OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) working with G20 countries to establish objective criteria by our July meeting to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions with respect to tax transparency.
India’s Black Money:
With no official data about the quantum of black money stashed away by its nationals abroad, but unofficial estimates are between $466 billion and $1.4 trillion.
