Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will sign Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters with OECD on September 14 as the Federal Cabinet formally approved this on Wednesday.

Minister for Finance Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar termed the decision a historic one while briefing a crowded press conference regarding decisions of Federal Cabinet here at Prime Minister Office.

He was flanked by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Secretary Ministry of Information Saba Mohsin Raza. Dar said he would leave for Paris on September 13 for signing agreement with Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which has the representation of 100 countries.

He said “the OECD has invited Pakistan to become its member as we fulfill its requirements”. “We will be going to sign the convention on September 14 as Federal Cabinet has accorded its approval”, he added.

He said the agreement would be implemented by end of 2017 and would be fully activated form the years 2018-19. He said the credit of singing this important agreement went to present government as no governments in the past seventy years had bothered to think about it.

He said after signing the treaty, Pakistan would have access to automatic information about tax data. He said the Cabinet has also given approval to signing of avoidance of double taxation treaty with Switzerland.

The process in this regard was initiated in 2014 and in this regard a two-member Pakistani delegation held successful negotiations with Swiss authorities in June 25-27 2016, he added.

According to the Swiss law, this agreement would be approved by their Parliaments and then it would be signed between the two countries, he said.