KARACHI, Nov 24: Asia Oceania Tax Consultants Association (AOTCA) President Dr Jongtae Koo said on Wednesday that he perceived an active role for the organization after deepening of political and economic relations between member countries in a due course of time.

"It is only after achieving a required level of progress on political and economic fronts between countries of the region, the AOTCA will be more effective to support and unify the tax culture and tax laws in the member states," he said.

"We can not move ahead to introduce any reform at such a broad base level without first moving forward on political and economic fronts and feel it was too early for countries of the region to think on these lines," he maintained.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn ahead of AOTCA's 12th general council and regular body meeting being held in Karachi on November 26 and 27, respectively, Dr Jongtae Koo said the primary objective of the body was to exchange information on tax laws, tax administration and tax accounting system among AOTCA members.

The association was also fostering to create better understanding, develop closer cooperation and friendship between the member states which are presently 16 and have 20 tax bodies as its member, he added.

Assisted by AOTCA Secretary General Luck Chang, the president, however, said that a government organization, Asia Tax Alliance and Research, comprising heads of tax bodies from 13 countries was trying to integrate tax laws and management system, and AOTCA was also having close liaison with this body.

"Since our region has a long way to go before we achieve the level of understanding that say members of the European Union have achieved on political and economic fronts, the AOTCA will focus on bringing improvement in tax laws, management and tax accounting system of its members," he maintained.

He disclosed that the AOTCA also invited the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and the Confederation Fiscal of Europe (CFE) to the 12th general council and regular body meeting but both the organizations regretted as they are pre-occupied with their own meetings. However, he said both the organizations "assured us to participate in the next AOTCA meeting".

Responding to a question, Dr Koo said the AOTCA was also working on the double taxation issue between the member countries and suggested that it mainly depended on bilateral relation of the states.

He also dilated upon the AOTCA's set-up and said that its president was elected for two years and could contest for second term. Besides, he said there was deputy president and auditors. All the member bodies are represented by vice-presidents of each country.

Dr Jongtae Koo, who is a former president of the Korean Association of Certified Public Tax Accountants and also a member of national assembly of Republic of Korea, is 6th president of the AOTCA.

He said the AOTCA had two category of membership - ordinary member and associated member - the former had the voting right and also a liability and the latter has no voting right but could attend the meetings and benefit from the information and publication of the association.

He appreciated the role of All Pakistan Tax Bar Association and of Karachi Tax Bar Association in organizing the meeting of international importance in the city of Karachi. Dr Koo disclosed that a senior tax consultant Rehan Hassan Naqvi, who is a former president of the All Pakistan Tax Bar Association, attended the first meeting of the AOTCA held in 1992.

The AOTCA president said that around 40 to 50 foreign delegates were participating in the meeting. Initially, he said larger number of participants were expected but after coming to know that Karachi was the venue of the meeting some of them regretted as they perceived it to be in the war zone.

Dr Koo was critical of the working of Pakistan's foreign mission and said some delegates were not going to attend the meeting because they were unable to get visas. He said only last month he was in Mumbai and New Delhi and the Indian tax bar was going to get the membership approval in this meeting. However, he said unfortunately the Indian and Philippine delegations could not attend the meeting as they were denied visa to enter Pakistan.

Dr Koo was amazed with the contrast in the level of prosperity in the two neighbouring nations. In India, poverty is a lot more visible than in Pakistan, he said. "I believe that economic polices of both the countries - India and Pakistan - are quite different as general economic scenario as reflected in streets of their cities look different," he observed.1