A Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Rasmi Ranjan Das, has been appointed as one of the members of the UN tax committee for the 2021 to 2025 term. Das is one of 25 tax experts in the UN team from across the globe.
The committee was earlier known as the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. It acts as a guide to efforts put by various countries to advance more robust tax policies adapted to the realities of globalised trade and investment, an economy that is more digitised and constant environmental degradation. The committee also helps countries try to prevent double or multiple taxation and non-taxation. It enables the countries to broaden their tax base, make their tax administrations stronger, and limit international tax evasion and avoidance.
Tax practitioners who are members of the new committee come with expertise in various areas, including double tax treaties, transfer pricing, avoiding and resolving tax disputes, taxation of the extractive industries, taxation of the digital economy, environmental taxation, and value-added taxes.
Rasmi Ranjan Das is Joint Secretary – (FT&TR-I), Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. Other members of the UN Tax Committee, all of whom have been appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, come from countries such as Nigeria, Chile, South Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Ireland, Indonesia, Myanmar, Angola, Russia, Canada, Norway, Germany, Italy, Sweden and China.
The committee has a majority of women experts this year, for the first time since its inception.
“The UN Tax Committee has been impressive, technically unpacking salient tax matters and new areas, such as taxation of the digitalised economy. ATAF looks forward to engaging with the new membership and extending the same technical support to the new Africa contingent as we did to their predecessors,” Logan Wort, Executive Director of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), was quoted as saying.
The committee’s primary focus is on developing countries and their policy environment. Most of the members who have been newly appointed hail from developing countries.
In the first meeting of the committee’s new members, which is scheduled to be held in October 2021, the work plan for the term will be discussed and determined by the experts.
