ICRICT established

The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) has been established to propose reforms in the current tax systems which do not favour the public interest.

The commission a new nonpartisan body, has been established in response to widespread anger about corporate tax avoidance, the impacts of such avoidance on inequality and poverty, and concerns that current tax reform processes are inadequate.

The church, represented by the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) is part of the commission whose inaugural meeting will take place in New York on March 18-19, 2015.

The Commission chaired by, former UN Under-Secretary-General José Antonio Ocampo, includes prominent economic experts, church leaders and political leaders from around the world: Eva Joly, Rev. Suzanne Matale, Manuel Montes, Léonce Ndikumana, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, Govinda Rao, Magdalena Sepúlveda, and Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist.

On March 18, the Commission will hear from business, academic, labor, governmental and civil society experts on potential reforms. The commission will shed light on where the rules of the game, and the institutions that govern them, need to change.

The Commission will produce a set of recommendations in the context of the on-going UN Financing for Development agenda and the G20/Organisation for Economic Co-orporation and Development (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative.

ICRICT was initiated by a broad coalition that includes the World Council of Churches, Action Aid, Alliance-Sud, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Christian Aid, the Council for Global Unions, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, Oxfam, Public Services International and Tax Justice Network.

This is contained in a statement issued to Qfm news by CCZ secretary general reverend Suzanne Matale.