On 03.06.2015, India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in a signing ceremony held in Paris. The objective of the agreement is to exchange information on an automatic basis as per the new global standards on automatic exchange of information, known as Common Reporting Standards (CRS) on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), which obliges treaty partners to exchange wide range of financial information in their country/jurisdictions including information about the ultimate controlling persons and beneficial owners of entities. The agreement would enable India to receive information from almost every country in the world including offshore financial centres, to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance and to receive information about assets of Indians held abroad. The ultimate aim is to curb tax evasion and deal with the problem of black money.
-Ministry of Finance