Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo led the DGT delegation to attend the Plenary Meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum). The meeting was held offline in Seville, Spain on November 9-11, 2022 after being held online in 2020 and 2021. The meeting brought together 165 members of the Global Forum to meet in person and discuss the latest international tax issues, particularly transparency and exchange of tax information.
In one of the discussion topics on Regional Initiatives Updates, Suryo Utomo as Chair of the Asia Initiative acted as a panelist along with Githii Mburu (Kenya) as Chair of the Africa Initiative and Priscilla Zamora (Costa Rica) as Chair of the Latin America Initiative. In his response to the moderator's question regarding the background of the birth of the Asia Initiative and Indonesia's important role in the creation of the initiative, Suryo Utomo explained that Indonesia sees tax transparency as an important agenda.
Suryo said that Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati as the keynote speaker at the Plenary Meeting Global Forum last November 2021 conveyed her full support for the establishment of the Asia Initiative as a regional transparency initiative for the Asian region. Suryo explained that the declaration signing marking the establishment of the Asia Initiative known as the Bali Declaration was held in Bali on July 14, 2022. Suryo hopes that the Asia initiative can increase the use of tax transparency and exchange of information for sustainable domestic resources mobilization in the Asian region. In addition, Suryo hopes that the three regional initiatives can develop high-level synergies and expand their collaboration on a larger scale.
The central theme in this year's Global Forum plenary meeting is “Bringing Transparency and Exchange of Information to the Next Level”. The theme is relevant to the current economic condition which is still vulnerable due to the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent geopolitical dynamic. Increasing the effectiveness of tax collaboration and modernizing information exchange policies for tax purposes are important strategies for strengthening the world economy.
The delegates appreciated the progress that had been made this year in relation to the exchange of information, one of which was related to the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) peer review. The Global Forum had completed the AEOI implementation effectiveness assessment of all jurisdictions committed to AEOI implementation. The Global Forum had also published a Peer Review of the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information Report which presents the assessment result for the 99 countries and jurisdictions which had committed to starting AEOI in 2017 or 2018.
According to the report, Indonesia’s legal framework implementing the AEOI Standard is “in place” and is consistent with the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference. In addition, Indonesia’s implementation of the AEOI Standard is “on track” with respect to the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference to ensure the effectiveness of the AEOI Standard in practice. This means that Indonesia has enacted adequate legal frameworks, ensured that Reporting Financial Institutions carry out the due diligence and reporting procedures, and exchanged information in an effective and timely manner.
In addition, the delegates also welcomed the progress of the EOIR peer review, Capacity Building and Outreach activities, and the Task-Force on Risk project. The delegates also agreed to support the implementation of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) amendments published by the OECD on October 10, 2022.
In the final session of the meeting, the delegates agreed on the upcoming work program and the supervisory framework that will be used as reference in the next peer review. All members also reiterated their commitment to advancing international tax cooperation based on the level playing field which has been at the core of the Global Forum’s success.
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