ISLAMABAD: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will extend technical assistance to Pakistan in its efforts for undertaking broad based tax reforms.

The assurance came from OECD Secretary General, Ángel Gurría at the organisation’s headquarters in Paris in a meeting with Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar.

An official statement issued by the Finance Division said Pakistan and OECD would further strengthen their cooperation in various areas including tax related matters and sharing of experiences in social and economic development.

Both sides expressed satisfaction over the ongoing cooperation between Pakistan and the OECD.

Pakistan signed the OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in September 2016, and Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) as well as Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Accounts (MCAA) in June 2017. Pakistan has previously been participating in various OECD Global Fora meetings.

Mr Gurría invited Pakistan to further enhance its engagement with the OECD by participating in its various programmes including the Initiative on Global Value Chains, inclusive growth framework, detection of foreign bribery and revenue statistics.

Dr Shamshad discussed support to conduct an in-depth review of Pakistan’s tax policy to support its reform effort as well as technical assistance through Tax Inspectors Without Borders Programme.

The Secretary General asked the OECD team to follow up on the request on an urgent basis.

Dr Shamshad also discussed with the Secretary General Pakistan’s request for the membership of the OECD Development Centre, which brings together both OECD member states, developing and emerging economies and other development partners on one platform to find policy solutions to stimulate growth and improve living conditions.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018