Black money battle: Arun Jaitley embarks on 4-day visit to Paris, to sign OECD tax pact

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today embarked on a four-day visit to Paris during which he will address foreign investors and sign the OECD pact that aims to check cross border tax evasion by MNCs. Jaitley will deliver the keynote address at the OECD meeting tomorrow and participate in a panel discussion on ‘Stocktaking on Globalisation’. Other participants in the panel discussion include OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria and Denmark Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen. He will also participate in discussion sessions on ‘The Challenges of Globalisation and the OECD’ and ‘Cashless Society and Fintech’. [caption id=“attachment_3524185” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PTI[/caption] He will also hold a bilateral meeting with Gurria, as well as Denmark Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen and Finland Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkanen. “Thereafter, the Finance Minister will participate in the Signing Ceremony for BEPS Convention and will make a statement on the occasion of the Signing Ceremony,” a statement by the Finance Ministry said. The Union Cabinet had last month approved signing of the multilateral convention of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The convention is an outcome of the OECD-G20 BEPS project to tackle base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) which is resorted to by MNCs through tax planning strategies by exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules. On 8 June, Jaitley, who also holds the defence portfolio, will call on his French counterpart and Minister of Defence, Sylvie Goulard. Thereafter, he will also meet the President of MEDEF (Mouvement des Entreprises de France), Pierre Gattaz. The Finance Minister will also make a statement at a “Conference on Business opportunities between the African Tech System and the Global Tech World”, the statement said. Jaitley will address an investors roundtable session co-organised by CII and BNP Paribas. On 9 June, Jaitley will call on the French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire. In the evening, the Finance Minister will leave for back home and arrive in the national capital on 10 June.