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  • Adeosun, Emefiele represent Nigeria at IMF/World Bank meeting

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, left Nigeria for Washington DC on Sunday to join other economic experts from around the world to discuss issues affecting global economy.

    Discussions would take place under the auspices of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    The Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank will bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations and the academia.

    The experts will discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development and aid effectiveness.

    There will also be seminars, regional briefings, press conferences and many other events with focus on global economy, international development and the world’s financial system.

    The meetings will hold between April 16 and April 22, 2018.

    Nigeria attends the meeting each year because of the quantum of investments and assistance it receives from both the IMF and the World Bank.

    Although Nigeria currently has zero loans with the IMF, it enjoys technical support from the organisation.

    The World Bank Group on the other hand is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards in the country through 33 Core Knowledge Product Reports and 29 ongoing National and Regional projects.

    This is in addition to about 60 Trust Funds.

    The World Bank Group since 1958 supported Nigeria with loans and International Development Association (IDA) credits worth about 14.2 billion dollars.

    The group in 2017 fiscal year alone committed 1.51 billion dollars to the country and so far in 2018, it already spent 486 million dollars on different development projects across the country.

    Some of the projects include Electricity Transmission Project, Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project, Polio Eradication Support Project and Housing Finance Development Programme, among others.

     

  • FG rakes in N123bn through whistle blowing policy – Adeosun

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has said that the whistle-blower policy of the Federal Government has yielded about N123 billion so far.

    While speaking at an evaluation workshop on the whistle-blower policy and asset tracing team organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption on Friday, Adeosun, who was represented by the Head, Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) and Whistle-blower Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Dikwa said 791 investigations were commenced while 534 had been concluded, with N7.8billion, $378million (about N115.3 billion) and 27,800 pounds (about N12 million) recovered so far.

    Adeosun, who stated that the Federal Government was planning to review the whistle-blower policy to make it more effective stressed that the government would focus more on tight control measures that would make it difficult for a few people to take away assets that belong to the entire country.

    “The whistle-blower policy is aimed at improving institutional governance, strengthening mechanisms for the fight against corruption and supporting the implementation of open government partnership principles in advancing anti-corruption reforms,”, she said.

    She also disclosed an inter-agency asset tracing team had been constituted to centralise the tracking, management and maintenance of all recovered non-cash assets in the custody of the Federal Government, monitor the disposal of assets under final forfeiture to the Federal Government by the court.

    “This would stem general loss of value, including the depreciation of motor vehicles and loss of rental income from high value properties recovered”, she added.

    Meanwhile, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay said that not all whistle-blowers will get five per cent of recovered sum.

    “One controversial issue in the policy is the question of remuneration. The public seems to be fixated on five per cent. But in fact, five per cent is the maximum. It can be as little as one per cent, depending on the amount of money involved. It could be slightly more if it is an extremely large amount”, he said.

     

  • Adeosun reassigns portfolios in SEC, appoints Acting DG

    The Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Friday approved the reassignment of portfolios in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

    Ms. Mary Uduk will assume the position of Acting Director-General of the Commission. Uduk’s appointment is governed by the provisions of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA), 2007 and the conditions of service applicable to the Director-General of the Commission.

    The Minister, in a letter dated 13th April, 2018, said Uduk’s appointment had become necessary to ensure effective regulation of the Capital Market. Her appointment will, subject to satisfactory performance, subsist until further notice.

    The Minister also announced the redeployment of the former acting Director-General of the Commission, Dr. Abdul Zubair, to External Relations Department.

    She further made the following reassignment of the under-mentioned persons –

    i. Reginald C. Karawusa – Acting Executive Commissioner, Legal and Enforcement;

    ii. Isiyaku Tilde – Acting Executive Commissioner, Operations;

    iii. Henry Roland Adekunle – Acting Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services.

    The new Acting Director-General joined the Commission in 1986 as an assistant financial analyst. Her career as a regulator has spanned many functions and departments in the Commission, from corporate finance, administration, to providing structural, policy and due diligence for capital market transactions. She has also been responsible for managing several landmark capital market projects, including the registration of Capital Market Operators, articulating rules for bonds and equities; Mergers, acquisitions and Takeovers, and managing the banking and insurance industry consolidations between 2005-2007.

    Uduk served as the pioneer Head of the Operations Division in the Lagos Zonal Office, and has headed the following Departments in the Commission: Internal Control, Investment Management, Financial Standards and Corporate Governance and Securities, and Investment Services Department, among others.

    Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Finance has requested for a formal explanation from the SEC of the recent communications between the Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which adversely impacted market confidence.

     

  • Abacha loot : Adeosun distances self from controversy surrounding recovery of $322.51m from Switzerland

    Abacha loot : Adeosun distances self from controversy surrounding recovery of $322.51m from Switzerland

    The Federal Government says it has received 322.51 million dollars from the Swiss Government as part of looted funds recovered from former Head of State, late General Sani Abacha.

    Mr Oluyinka Akintunde, the Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the Minister of Finance, said this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

    According to Akintunde, the government received the money since Dec., 2017.

    Akintunde said there was no controversy surrounding the recovery of stolen funds by the former head of state from the Swiss Government.

    “The minister wishes to dissociate herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from recent reports on the Abacha refunds.

    “The minister had at no time written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery.

    “She also refutes the flawed reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery.

    “We wish to state that the sum of 322,515,931.83 dollars was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Dec. 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government,” he said.

    Akintunde said the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, frowned at a recent report that she objected to the payment of 16.9 million dollars to two lawyers who recovered the Abacha funds.

    In 1999, the Nigerian Government hired Mr Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer to recover the Abacha loot.

    After a successful negotiation by Monfrini, the recovered money was domiciled with the Attorney-General of Switzerland pending the signing of an MoU with Nigeria to avoid the issues of accountability that trailed previous recoveries.

    All that was left after the signing of the MoU was a government-to-government communication for the money to be repatriated to Nigeria.

    However, Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, later engaged the services of another set of lawyers in 2016 for a fee of about N6 billion (16.9 million dollars).

    The two Nigerian lawyers are Mr Oladipo Okpeseyi, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Temitope Adebayo.

  • Dwindling allocations: Adeosun reconvenes FAAC meeting after 36 commissioners stage work out

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has reconvened a crucial Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting the representatives of the thirty-six state governments (finance commissioners) who had earlier on Tuesday (yesterday) staged a walk out of the meeting because alleged discrepancies in the financial reports of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    The meeting, convened to consider and approve statutory revenue allocations for February, came to an abrupt end.

    About an hour after the inconclusive meeting, the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, announced it would continue on Wednesday morning. She also said she would hold a crucial meeting with the NNPC chief.

    The Minister’s decision to reconvene the meeting according to her media aide, Akintunde Oluyinka was to save workers the headache of having a bleak Easter celebrations.

    Recall that last December, the FAAC meeting was equally stalemated, as members could not reconcile the revenue figures presented by the national oil company, which told a shocked nation at the height of a recent fuel crisis it spends N774 million daily to guarantee steady supply of petroleum products.

    With a free pass granted the corporation to deduct as operational cost whatever expenses it incurs from fuel supply before remitting the balance to the Federation Account, close watchers of NNPC operations said Tuesday’s crisis was expected.

    During the meeting, representatives of the states, consisting accountants-general and commissioners of finance, said it was their consensus not to approve the allocations to the three tiers of government for the month.

    They described the discrepancies in revenue figures presented by the NNPC as a bad omen to workers in the country who may have to go without salary for the month until the issue is resolved.

    The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who confirmed the development to reporters shortly after the meeting, at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja, said a new schedule for the meeting would be communicated on a later date.

    Idris said the decision to postpone the meeting followed the discovery of “understated revenue” remitted by the NNPC into the Federation Account.

    “We have just retired out of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting for the month of March where we considered the revenue figures for the federation for the previous month of February.

    “Let me be quick to tell you that the meeting was inconclusive, because issues around reconciliation of figures are on the table.

    “Obviously, you are all aware that anything that has to do with federation revenue is statutory and therefore constitutional. And we must always verify our figures to the last kobo, failing which we will be committing illegality and unconstitutionality,” Mr Idris said.

    He said following some issues observed in the revenue figures presented by the NNPC, the meeting had to be postponed until those figures were ”reconciled, corrected, verified and confirmed to be factual”.

    Although he said members were very sensitive about the issue, they owed the people a constitutional duty to ensure the necessary laws guiding revenue distribution among the three tiers of government were followed to the latter.

    He assured that revenue figures submitted by the NNPC would be reviewed and reconciled before sharing accordingly.

    He said it was sad that civil servants and workers in the federal, state and local governments who expected to have their salaries and all other commitments from government would not be able to do as a result of the development.

    He refused to disclose the level of under-remittance by the NNPC but said the committee would investigate and determine the figure.

    “It’s not about the quantum or amount being distributed. It is about reconciliation of the figure presented.

    “In finance and accounting, reconciliation means figures not agreeing as presented by different sections. Once figures do not agree, they must be made to agree.

    “Unless we get to the bottom of it, have clarity and some level of certainty, we remain where we are,” he said.

    The Chairman, Forum of FAAC Commissioners, Mahmoud Yunusa, said the resolution of its members was for NNPC to remit the revenue to the last kobo.

    Yunusa said the meeting began last week with NNPC not submitting their figures until Monday, making members not to be able to review until Tuesday morning.

    He said when the figures presented by the NNPC were reviewed, members were surprised to observe the amount was less than N100 billion, which was promptly rejected.

    The chairman, who is the Nasarawa State Commissioner for Finance, said the inability to approve the revenue for the month on time would affect the ability of governments at all levels to pay workers’ salaries ahead of the forthcoming Easter celebrations.

    According to records of remittances to the FAAC, the NNPC had presented only N74.06 billion as revenue from its operations for February.

    When compared with submissions for the previous month, the figure would be about N37.76 billion lower than the N111.83 billion remitted in January 2018.

    However, following Tuesday’s stalemate, the Minister of Finance and Chairman of the FAAC, Kemi Adeosun, has moved to douse the tension. She announced that the meeting would reconvene on Wednesday at 9.00 a.m.

    The meeting, which will hold at the Auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will have in attendance the Accountant General of the Federation; Commissioners of Finance and Accountant-Generals of the 36 ztates and representatives of the NNPC, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources, among others.

    The minister has also called for an emergency meeting next week with the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, and key management over revenue payment into the Federation Account.

     

  • No ulterior motives behind writing Magu on recovered loots – Adeosun

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on Sunday insisted that there was no ulterior motives behind writing the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, on cash assets recovered by the agency between May 2015 and January 2018 as speculated in the media.

    Recall that a memo dated February 9 and signed by the minister was addressed to Magu to notify him of records of cash asset recoveries in the custody of the anti-graft agency based on information available to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

    In the memo, Adeosun said the Ministry of Finance had noted that EFCC was using in its computations recovery figures in media reports without reconciling same with the ministry’s records.

    Consequently, the minister asked Magu to ensure the EFCC provided evidence where the cash recoveries it was quoting in the media were deposited or kept for official records reconciliation.

    The letter, which leaked in the media at the weekend, generated huge debate among Nigerians, with some accusing government of insincerity about details of the cash assets recovered from public officers since it came to power in May 2015.

    Despite several official requests by the media and civil society groups to make details of the actual recoveries public, government’s explanation has always been that it was not possible in view of the legal processes involving some of the recovered assets.

    However, on Sunday, Mrs Adeosun through her spokesperson, Oluyinka Akintunde, in a statement said the thrust of the letter to the EFCC acting chairman was to enable government reconcile and harmonise the figures on recovered funds.

    In a three-paragraph statement, Mr Akintunde said: “The attention of the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has been drawn to media reports misrepresenting her innocuous letter to the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on cash recoveries by the Federal Government.

    “The minister wishes to state explicitly that the letter dated 9th February, 2018, was a standard letter aimed at improving controls over the recovered funds.

    “There is no ulterior motive behind the letter as alleged in some media reports but to enable the reconciliation and harmonisation of the figures on recovered funds by the government.”

    He said reconciliation of the records of cash asset recoveries was currently ongoing after the EFCC subsequently provided the requested information to the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

     

  • Economic Development: Adeosun seeks support for Nigeria, West Africa

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun on Tuesday called for additional technical and institutional support from the Africa Regional Technical Assistance Centre West 2 (AFRITAC West 2) for West African countries.

    Adeosun said this in a statement issued by Mr Oluyinka Akintunde, her Special Adviser on Media and Communications.

    The statement said Adeosun spoke at the sixth Steering Committee meeting of the IMF –AFRITAC West 2 in Abuja.

    The minister said the provision of more technical and institutional support for West African countries would impact significantly on capacity development within the region.

    “The ability to mobilise resources and build institutions with the capabilities to allocate them effectively, is the foundation of a strong economic management engine.

    “The transfer of these technical capabilities and emergence of stronger institutions will increase the economic resilience of member-countries.

    “These countries will have the technical capability to successfully and independently manage their economies to effectively deliver on critical development imperatives,’’ he said.

    Adeosun said the Nigerian Government was committed to the diversification of the economy from over reliance on oil.

    She pledged that going forward, the economy would be shielded from the negative effects of over-dependence on a singular resource.

    Adeosun also said the government was mobilising domestic revenue through taxes to improve the economy and foster economic development.

    “AFRITAC has supported this effort by conducting the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool, which provided Nigeria with an objective assessment of key components of our tax system.

    “We see this work as critical to Nigeria’s future development, and would support its continued implementation,” she said.

    Adeosun urged member-countries of the West African region to collaborate with AFRITAC to strengthen country ownership of the various capacity development interventions.

    The Coordinator of AFRITAC, Mr Oral Williams, disclosed that the Centre had executed 150 capacity development activities across member-countries.

    According to him, the Centre has designed the work programme for the next fiscal year with the aim of delivering quantifiable results.

    The event was attended by the Senior Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Nigeria, Mr Amine Mati, the Director-General of Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze.

    It was also attended by the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Babatunde Fowler.

    Delegates from Ghana, Cape Verde, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Nigeria also attended the Steering Committee meeting.

  • Adeosun talks tough; tells World Bank, IMF, others to label tax evasion by Multinationals as foreign corrupt practices

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has called for the designation of tax malpractices by Multinational Corporations in Nigeria and other developing countries as ‘foreign corrupt practices’.

    She made the call at the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) Conference in New York, which rounded up over the weekend. The PCT is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations.

    The Minister explained that Nigeria was doubly affected by illicit financial flows as a result of corruption and tax evasion.

    She requested global organisations such as the OECD, World Bank, IMF and United Nations to see the tax avoidance actions of multinational companies as corrupt practices.

    “There is absolute need for a complete understanding of how these Multinational Corporations (MNCs) behave in Nigeria and developing countries, many operate a completely different standard in Africa to what obtains globally,” Adeosun said.

    She lamented the capability of defaulting MNCs to hide behind slow legislative processes to avoid doing what was right in the nations from which they derived significant income.

    The Minister, who disclosed that options to sue such companies in their own countries were being explored, said that the designation of tax crime as foreign corrupt practices would support such efforts.

    On the wider issue of Illicit Financial Flows, she emphasised that Nigeria, under President Muhammadu Buhari, was ‘taking strong action and was determined to reverse their impact’.

    The Government, according to Adeosun, is taking a number of measures internally and also taking full advantage of international initiatives to tackle the problem.

    She added, “Internal measures include tightening financial controls and surveillance, adoption of the National Tax Policy with its commitment to regular revisions of tax laws and the ongoing tax amnesty programme, the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).”

    The Minister stated further that the Nigerian Government would use every available avenue to improve its revenue generation and tax collection and credited the United Nations with putting the issue of Illicit Financial Flows at the forefront of the fight against IFF.

    She noted that that it was ‘entirely appropriate that we are discussing this issue in the United Nations Headquarters, as this is a United Nations sized problem’.

    She referred to the Thabo Mbeki report that found that IFFs from Africa exceeded the volume of foreign aid into Africa, adding that Nigeria was found to be the most adversely affected.

    “The Nigerian Government is taking responsibility for preventing illicit flows but the range of measures used and the sheer volumes are such that the recipient nations must also take measures to discourage the flows into their countries by asking more questions,” Adeosun remarked.

    She lauded the recent initiative by the United Kingdom Government with Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) and requested that more countries adopt such measures.

    She added that Nigeria was studying the options for introducing similar measures in the country.

  • Adeosun woos global bodies in fight against foreign corrupt practices

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has urged global bodies like the World Bank to help curb foreign corrupt practices by multinational corporations in Nigeria and other developing countries.

    The Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Mr Oluyinka Akintunde, in a statement on Monday, quoted Adeosun as making the call at the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) Conference in New York.

    “There is absolute need for a complete understanding of how these Multinational Corporations (MNCs) behave in Nigeria and developing countries.

    “Many operate a completely different standard in Africa to what obtains globally,” she said.

    Adeosun said that many MNCs were hiding behind slow legislative processes to avoid doing what was right in nations from which they derived significant income.

    She said that options to sue such companies in their own countries were being explored.

    The minister said that the designation of tax crime as foreign corrupt practices would support such efforts.

    On the wider issue of illicit financial flows, Adeosun said that Nigeria, under President Muhammadu Buhari, was taking strong actions and was determined to reverse their impact.

    “Internal measures like tightening financial controls and surveillance, adoption of the National Tax Policy with its commitment to regular revisions of tax laws and the ongoing tax amnesty programme have been adopted,” she said.

    Adeosun said the Nigerian Government would use every available avenue to improve its revenue generation and tax collection.

    “The Nigerian Government is taking responsibility for preventing illicit flows.

    “However, the range of measures used and the sheer volumes are such that the recipient nations must also take measures to discourage the flows into their countries by asking more questions,” she said.

    The minister lauded the recent initiative of the United Kingdom Government with Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) and requested that more countries should adopt such measures.

  • Nigeria, global bodies move to stop Illicit Financial Flows in Africa

    …Africa loses $80bn annually through IFF, with Nigeria accounting for significant percentage

    Nigeria and global organisations, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank Group, have agreed on high-level collaborations with Nigeria and other African countries to stop Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) in Africa.

    This was a major resolution reached at the ongoing Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) Conference at the United Nations in New York.

    The Head of OECD Global Forum on Exchange of Information, Ms. Monica Bhatia, who disclosed this on Thursday at the PCT Conference, stated that automatic information sharing had been adopted as part of proactive steps to curtail the IFFs from the African continent to developed countries..

    “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically says that we must significantly reduce illicit financial flows by the year 2030. A lot of efforts are ongoing to achieve this and support developing countries to end the IFFs,” Bhatia said.

    Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in her address at the conference, affirmed that the IFF was a problem that urgently requires global focus and actions towards the realisation of significant developmental progress for Nigeria and other developing countries.

    Adeosun said, “The IFFs are driven by the desire to hide illicit wealth, hide the proceeds away from the public eye and law enforcement agencies and also conceal the ways and means by which illicit wealth was created. This makes it difficult to trace the associated money flow.

    “Developing countries, including Nigeria, collect significantly lower levels of tax, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), than wealthier States. This is partly because the income and wealth being created, is taken out of the country illegally, without being taxed.”

    Quoting the report of former South African President Mbeki’s High-Level Panel on IFFs, the Minister said Africa loses US$80 billion annually to IFFs, with a significant percentage of the loss coming from Nigeria.

    She disclosed that the Nigerian Government had engaged a leading international Asset Tracing and Investigation Agency (Kroll), to trace and track illicit flows and assets.

    In addition, she said Nigeria had signed the Multilateral Competent Authority on Common Reporting Standards, which allows for exchange of financial account information.

    The country, according to her, is expected to effect the first exchange by 2019 as soon as the domestic legal framework was completed.

    She added, “Nigeria has adopted the Common Reporting Standards and the Addis Tax initiative aimed at improving the fairness, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the tax system.

    “Furthermore, as part of open government partnership Nigeria has included in the national action plan a commitment to establish a public register of beneficial owners. To this end, the Corporate Affairs Commission, the custodian of Nigeria’s company registry, is pursuing relevant amendments to the Companies and Allied Matters Act to comply with global standards.”

    As part of measures to tackle IFFs, Adeosun called for the tightening of Nigeria’s tax codes and tax laws that encourage tax avoidance as well as strengthening of the tax system to make it more efficient.

    Advocating more responsibility on the part of destination countries of illicit financial flows, the Minister advised that beneficial ownership registers should be established to allow authorities track money in financial investigations involving suspect accounts/assets held by corporate vehicles.

    She further called for the elimination of safe havens that provide incentives for transfer of stolen assets and illicit financial flows abroad, and also the development of a supportive, efficient and speedy process for returning assets to originating countries.

    On the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) introduced by the Federal Government in June 2017, she explained that the tax amnesty was targeted at increasing the tax payer base, raising revenue and regularising the tax status of many Nigerians.

    She noted that the scheme was aimed at raising at least $1 billion and bringing in four million new tax payers into the tax net.

    “We are using technology to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the programme. Project Light House is using advanced data mining and data analytics techniques to: identify tax defaulters, establish their tax liabilities and send notifications.

    “The system-wide computer software, which drives Project Lighthouse, aggregates data from multiple sources such as bank accounts, land registry records, company registration data, tax filings, customs’ records, asset ownership records, among others, to identify, profile and track tax evaders,” she remarked.

    The PCT Conference is a collaborative initiative of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund and United Nations.

    The inaugural PCT Conference, which has as theme “Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, is focusing on the opportunities and challenges for taxation and its role in supporting the SDGs.

    It covers practical aspects of tax policy and administration, as well as encourages an open change of experience and views on how to ensure taxation policy and practices can improve SDG outcomes.