Government representatives of the seven member regional body, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have finalized the drafts of two agreements to be signed in the upcoming summit providing for a regional customs co-operation to check import duty evasion and forgery, and allowing exchange scholars to earn tax-free up to $3,000 a year, reports said.
One of the documents, the draft Multilateral Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement covering 14 areas, was finalised in Islamabad last week. Similarly, officials belonging to seven South Asian nations gave shape to the Agreement on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters simultaneously in New Delhi.
The 13th SAARC Summit due to be held in the Bangaldeshi capital of Dhaka on January 9-11, 2005 is expected to adopt the agreements, which are likely to be put into effect from January 2006, Dhaka-based newspaper, Daily Star, reported Monday.
Businessmen and investors will be the major segment of direct beneficiaries of the taxation deal. The treaty is aimed at strengthening the trade and economic ties among the SAARC members giving impetus to intra-regional trade for mutual benefits, officials said.
Intra-regional trade in SAARC is only 3 percent of their total international trade, which is 25 percent in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and over 50 percent in the European Union.
The SAARC Summit is expected to sign two more agreements — one on ‘promotion and protection of investments’ and the other on ‘establishing a SAARC arbitration council and SAARC arbitration rules’.
The South Asian countries will enter a free trade regime from January 1, 2006 under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). They are currently signing trade facilitation deals to make a smooth transition into the free-trade gear, the news report said quoting sources. nepalnews.com by Dec 13 04