Pride of Africa: Key UN Tax Committee selects prominent experts from ATAF membership
The African Tax Administration Forum(ATAF), applauds the recent selection of six African tax experts to serve on a 25-member United Nations committee for a four-year term on a key structure responsible for UN international tax and transfer pricing work. The UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters is key in setting global tax standards. It is responsible for updating important UN international tax documents that form the basis of many countries’ tax laws and guide tax treaty negotiations.
A subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), it includes individuals from India, Japan, China, Brazil, Singapore, and Russia, six individuals from African nations and three from EU countries. Important to highlight, is that amongst those committee members from Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia (all members of ATAF) and Djibouti, is the Commissioner-General of the Federal Inland Revenue Service of Nigeria, William Babatunde Fowler, the current Chairperson of ATAF’s governing body, the Council. A key illustration of leading by example!
ATAF believes that the experience and knowledge these experts will bring to the Committee’s work will not only greatly benefit the UN but also their own countries and Africa, as a whole as it will ensure that the UN’s work reflects both the opportunities and challenges faced by African countries in improving domestic resource mobilisation (DRM).
ATAF celebrates the elevation of its members and other Africans selected to this important committee. As an international platform and network, ATAF, through its Cross Border Taxation Technical Committee, has been influencing the G20/OECD’s global standard setting work for several years and looks forward to supporting the new members in their work on the Committee. Together we can participate in setting policy to effectively curb IFFs. We can only wish them every success!
The following committee members were appointed: Natalia Aristazabal Mora (Colombia); Abdoulfatah Moussa Arreh (Djibouti); Rajat Bansal (India); Margaret Moonga Chikuba (Zambia); William Babatunde Fowler (Nigeria); Mitsuhiro Honda (Japan); Cezary Krysiak (Poland); Eric Nii Yarboi Mensah (Ghana); Dang Ngoc Minh (Vietnam). Patricia Mongkhonvanit (Thailand); Marlene Patricia Nembhard Parker (Jamaica); George Omondi Obell (Kenya); Carmel Peters (New Zealand); Carlos E. Protto (Argentina); Jorge Antonio Deher Rachid (Brazil); Aart Roelofsen (Netherlands); Christoph Schelling (Switzerland); Aleksandr Anatolyevich Smirnov (Russian Federation); Stephanie Smith (Canada); Elfrieda Stewart Tamba (Liberia); Titia Stolte Detring (Germany); José Troya (Ecuador); Ingela Willfors (Sweden); Yan Xiong (China); Sing Yuan Yong (Singapore).
