Destination Nations Must Insist On Repatriation Of Illicit Funds – Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has come out to beg leaders of destination countries to insist on the repatriation of illicit funds and proceeds.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande recently revealed this in a statement in Abuja.

According to Osinbajo, there has to be an overhaul of the international tax system in order to tackle the scourge effectively.

He added that the commercial form of illicit financial flows, especially tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance accounts for up to 65 percent of illicit financial flows.

His words, “The enormity of efforts required to tackle illicit financial flows is evident in the many dimensions the scourge presents itself.

“It manifests through harmful tax policies and practices, abusive transfer pricing, trade mis-pricing and mis-invoicing illegal exploitation of natural resources as well as official corruption, and organised crimes.

“We have to pay particular attention to efforts to reform the international tax system.

“The commercial form of illicit financial flows, especially tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance accounts for up to 65 per cent of illicit financial flows.

“This means that we must pay particular attention to these issues, which are aided by things such as tax treaties, tax havens, and financial secrecy jurisdictions and indeed tax competition which leads to a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of tax rates amongst developing countries.”