PM presents plan to curb illicit cash flows from developing countries

Islamabad: Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Thursday addressed a high-level panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) — with the premier taking the opportunity to appeal to the global community to curb illicit cash flows from developing nations, according to news sources.

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According to the PM’s office, during the FACTI session, he asked the nations of the world to help prevent the outflow of billions of dollars from developing countries, and presented a ‘robust public mandate’ to eradicated this corrupt practice.

As per the PM’s plan, the following measures can be practised to prevent illegal cash outflow:

• The stolen assets of developing countries (including proceeds of corruption and other monetary crimes) should be immediately returned.
• Tax haven destinations should impose financial and criminal penalties on their financial institutions involved in receiving and utilising such money and assets.
• The accountants, lawyers and other intermediaries that act as enablers of corrupt measures should be closely watched and held accountable.
• If inquired by the interested and affected governments, the beneficial ownership of foreign companies must be revealed immediately.

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• Profit-shifting to low-tax jurisdictions for multinational corporations must not be allowed. A global minimum corporate tax should be enforced.
• The revenues from digital transactions should be taxed where the revenues originated.
• A fair system for adjudication of investment disputes must be set-up and unequal investment treaties should be discarded.
• All formations (official and unofficial) established to monitor illicit money flow should include all countries.
• A mechanism to supervise these formations should be devised by the United Nations to ensure coherence, consistency and equity in their work.