MALAYSIA COMMMITTED TO INTERNATIONALLY-AGREED TAX STANDARDS

KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is committed to internationally-agreed tax standards in practice and should not be categorised under jurisdictions that are not, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Friday.

Malaysia had in fact sent a statement earlier this week to the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) leaders, to reaffirm its
commitment in subscribing to the OECD standard for the effective exchange of
information (EOI).

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, was responding to a report that
Malaysia and its offshore jurisdiction, the Labuan International Business and
Financial Centre (IBFC), had been identified as being among "jurisdictions which
were not committed to the internationally-agreed tax standards" following the
recent G20 summit in Paris.

"We should not be in that category as in practice, we have been committed
to the OECD requirements. Our statement to the OECD leaders earlier this week
was to re-affirm this.

"I understand that the list is a progress or status report of
jurisdictions which were not committed to the internationally-agreed tax
standards," he said in a statement, his first, as the Prime Minister.

Najib was sworn in as Malaysia's sixth Prime Minister Friday, taking over
from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Najib also clarified that Labuan had never been on any list of "tax havens"
issued by the OECD and Malaysia had always been cooperating with competent
authorities.

"At all times, the Labuan IBFC, the Labuan Offshore Financial Services
Authority (LOFSA) and Malaysian authorities have been cooperating with competent
authorities from other countries on tax matters and financial crime,
particularly money laundering.

"Our commitment is further evident from the on-going efforts to tighten
provisions of the EOI which are already in keeping with OECD requirements," said
Najib.

"Certainly, we expect the OECD to amend the list to put us in the category
of jurisdictions that have committed to the internationally agreed tax
standard," he added.

LOFSA also said in the statement that it welcomed the approach by the G20
and OECD to take measures to stamp out tax evasion.

LOFSA said since its inception, the jurisdiction had met the highest
international standards and had received positive assessments by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its Offshore Financial Sector Assessment
Programme.

In addition, the Labuan IBFC has been affirmed as a "low-risk" jurisdiction
for money laundering by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering which is a
division of the Financial Action Task Force and an associate body of the OECD.

LOFSA said existing EOI provisions have already met OECD requirements.
Efforts were also being taken to further tighten them through the legislative
process, it added.

Malaysia, as the world's 19th largest trading nation, has double-taxation
agreements with 69 countries.

These agreements have specific terms on the EOI which were in fact drafted
by OECD.

These terms commit Malaysia to cooperating with regulators to eradicate tax
evasion.

Malaysia, the Phillipines, Uruguay and Costa Rica were blacklisted as
uncooperative tax havens with G-20 leaders declaring the age of banking secrecy
was over.

The G-20 leaders also said they no longer tolerated shady havens draining
away badly needed tax revenue.
-- BERNAMA