The Road to FFD4: Domestic Revenue Mobilization as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Development Finance

AFRICAN GROUP COMMENTS FOR THE SECTION-BY-SECTION READING ON THE 3RD PREPARATORY COMMITTEEE
DOMESTIC PUBLIC RESOURCES

Co-chairs,

  • The Africa Group aligns itself with the statement delivered on behalf of the G77 and China.
  • In addition, we would like to add the following:

Paragraphs 28-29 (a-b)

  • Paragraph 29 (b): should also call for supporting countries to rationalize tax expenditures and use targeted incentives to attract investment in more diversified and transformative sectors.

Paragraph 29 (c-m)

  • We request the addition in paragraph 29 (j) a commitment to allocate at least 10 per cent of ODA towards the digitalization of tax administrations and capacity building in Africa to strengthen countries’ capacity for domestic resource mobilization and improving governance

Paragraph 30

  • Paragraph 30 (c) should be strengthened to support the work of the Negotiating Committee for the UN Framework convention on international Tax cooperation. In this regard, the para should be amended as follows: “We will continue to engage constructively and support the negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation”.
  • Paragraph 30 (f): the group proposes strengthening the language to include actionable recommendation on enhancing beneficial ownership transparency through the establishment of global beneficial ownership registries of legal persons and legal arrangements, which will further curb IFF, and facilitate domestic resource mobilization and recovery of stolen assets.
  • We reaffirm our call to avoid listing of the work of regional tax platforms in paragraph 30(g) and in this regard, we propose that the paragraph remains broad in scope, avoiding a prescriptive or overly detailed listing of specific examples.

Paragraph 31

  • Reference to FATF in paragraph 31 (f) should be deleted. FATF does not allow all developing countries to participate on an equal footing. Several developing countries have flagged concerns about the unfair blacklisting of developing countries for not following FATF standards
  • While we generally support the section on Illicit Financial Flows, it should be strengthened to include a commitment to act as the global community to eliminate secrecy jurisdictions, introduce transparency in financial transfers and crack down on money laundering.
  • We also request the addition of a new action in paragraph 31 calling for all stakeholders to measure and report on the implementation of SDG indicator 16.4.1 on Illicit Financial Flows and measures taken to significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime.

Paragraph 32

  • We appreciate the section on National Development Banks but request the addition of language specifically calling for international financial assistance to capitalize NDBs, so that these critical enabling institutions can be scaled up or established where they do not exist.

 

I thank you.