Mauritius Hosts 5th Asia-Africa Conference on International Tax Development

The 5th Asia-Africa conference of the International Fiscal Association on the theme “International Tax Development - Global and Regional” opened yesterday at the Sofitel Imperial, Mauritius, Flic en Flac, in the presence of the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Jugnauth.

Some 100 participants, both local and foreign policy makers, are attending the two-day conference. The objective is to discuss and exchange views on the recent developments that have taken place in the domain of international taxation, on the global front and within the region. The policy makers are also exposed to latest developments with regard to taxation.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, the Vice-Prime Minister stressed that Mauritius is revisiting its legislative and institutional frameworks to reinforce financial supervision and strengthen the regime to fight terrorist financing, money laundering and other financial crime. With increasing cross border investments and transactions, taxpayers are generating more of their income abroad and are transferring more money across country borders, he added. On this score, the importance of exchanging information has increased in order to levy accurate tax assessments and fight corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing, he said.

According to Mr Jugnauth, the accelerating process of globalisation of trade and investment has fundamentally changed the relationship among domestic tax systems. Removal of tax barriers to international commerce and investment, base broadening, rate reductions, increasing use of taxation as a means to compete for trade and FDI are some of the global trends that have had a bearing on the Mauritian approach to tax policy, he stated.

Mauritius, in the past three decades, has brought down the maximum income tax rate from 70 to 15 per cent. At present, the rate of tax on corporate and personal income is 15 per cent and the VAT rate is also 15 per cent. For a number of years, Mauritius was among the countries with the highest effective tariff barriers in the world. Mauritius has also rationalised and lowered trade taxes and simplified the tax system, strengthened the role of tax administration and created a wide network of Double Taxation Agreements. The country is also moving towards transforming itself into a duty-free shopping paradise.