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ISLAMABAD ? The Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday decided to grant voting rights to overseas Pakistanis. The decision will allow 3.7 million Pakistanis living abroad to vote.

The debate on whether overseas Pakistanis should be allowed to participate in Pakistan’s elections gained steam after Pakistan Tehrike Insaf chairman Imran Khan moved the Supreme Court requesting that Pakistanis living abroad should be permitted to vote.

At a meeting of the commission on Tuesday, which was chaired by ECP secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan, participants from various political parties decided that names of overseas Pakistanis will be registered in the electoral rolls. 

A voting mechanism has yet to be decided, but the participants discussed various proposals, including the option of postal balloting and setting up polling booths at Pakistani embassies.

Sources said non-resident Pakistanis above 18 years of age would be tracked by the National Database and Registration Authority and they would be sent ballot papers by post. The next general elections are scheduled for 2013.

news@khaleejtimes.com

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Pakistani expats get voting rights

Rs 24.5 lakh cr stashed by Indians in banks abroad: CBI Press Trust of India / New Delhi Feb 13, 2012, 15:06 IST

Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated $500 billion (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI Director said today.

India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.

"It is estimated that around $500 billion of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians," CBI Director AP Singh said speaking at the inauguration of first interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery.

He said getting information about such illegal transactions is a time taking process as investigators have to peel each layer by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made.

"Fifty three per cent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes. The tax havens include New Zealand which is ranked as the least corrupt country, Singapore ranked number five and Switzerland number seven," Singh said.

He said there is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven states to part with the information because they are aware of the extent to which their economies have become "geared to this flow of illegal capitals from the poorer countries."

The CBI Director said tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge, a complex process which requires expertise and political will.

"Managing the asset recovery investigation is complex, time consuming, costly and most importantly requires expertise and political will. There are many obstacles to asset recovery.

Not only is it a specialised legal process filled with delays and uncertainty, but there are also language barriers and a lack of trust when working with other countries," Singh said.

He said global financial markets allow money to travel faster and further making tracking the money trail in such cases even more difficult which necessitates the organisation of such global training programs as they enhance the knowledge of investigators in tracking assets created out of corrupt and criminal acts.

Singh said criminals are using the territorial issues of investigating agencies to their advantage by spreading their crimes to at least two countries and investing in a third.

"In some of the recent important cases being investigated by the CBI such as 2G, CWG and Madhu Koda, we find that money is taken to Dubai/Singapore/Mauritius from where it goes to Switzerland and other such tax havens.

"For criminals all it involves is setting up of a few shell companies and then making layered transfers from account to another in a matter of hours as there are no boundaries in banking transactions," he said.

He said the World Bank estimates the cross border flow of money from criminal activities and tax evasion is around $1.5 trillion of which $40 billion is bribe paid to government servants in developing countries.

Singh quoted the report to say that only $5 billion of this money has been repatriated during 15 years.

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Rs 24.5 lakh cr stashed by Indians in banks abroad: CBI

AP Singh is tired of people calling India corrupt and holding up tax havens as models of transparency.

Singh, the director of India's Central Bureau of Investigation, gave a speech yesterday trashing the corruption ranking by Transparency International:

"Fifty-three per cent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes. The tax havens include New Zealand which is ranked as the least corrupt country, Singapore ranked number five and Switzerland ranked number [nine].

"There is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven States to part with information required to trace such assets as they are all too aware of the extent to which their own economies have become geared to this flow of illegal capital from the poorer countries. India in particular has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin Islands, etc."

Singh's point comes down to whether you look at where illicit funds come from or where they go.

beyondbric's Neil Munshi's offers a counterargument, however, noting that India has declined to participate with Switzerland to track down illicit funds.

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Most Of The World's 'Least Corrupt' Countries Are Offshore Tax Havens

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

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Research and Markets: Wealth Management in Asia's Offshore Centers: Hong Kong and Singapore

2/14/2012 3:46 PM ET

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By Brett Arends, SmartMoney

Mitt Romney has been criticized for parking some of his fortune in Caymans Islands accounts, but he and other wealthy people aren’t really trying to duck taxes there.

One thing's for sure. Mitt Romney didn't send his money down to the Cayman Islands to work on its tan.

The former Massachusetts governor has been criticized by some for factor of five in the last 10 having some of his vast fortune in the Caribbean offshore banking center. Yes, it was politically clumsy. But it was not uncommon, and -- assuming he has filed all the right disclosures -- it was perfectly legal.

But if you're not running for president, and don't have to worry about public relations, what are the legitimate reasons for moving money offshore?

I spoke to Jim Duggan, a partner at Chicago law firm Duggan Bertsch, to get the skinny. He's a tax and estate planning attorney who specializes in wealth management issues for the very rich, and he's been practicing in this area for nearly 20 years.

He says a growing number of wealthy people are looking into moving some of their money offshore. "The interest in offshore planning has increased basically by a factor of five in the last ten years," he says. Clients want to talk to him about it all the time.

Why?

Contrary to popular opinion, it's not really to save on taxes.

That's because American taxpayers are taxed on their worldwide income -- so if you're making $10,000 (or $10 million) in interest on a bank account in, say, the Caymans or Switzerland, you're getting taxed by Uncle Sam as if you're making it in a bank account here.

It's easy to scoff and assume the rich are hiding their money and cheating. Doubtless some are. But enforcement is tight, and the penalties aren't so much draconian as medieval. They are far more severe than for tax evasion onshore.

And there are plenty of tax shelters available here in the U.S. anyway -- such as trusts in low-tax states, life insurance and variable annuities.

So what are the real reasons the rich are casing the Caymans with their cash?

There are two, says Duggan: Litigation risk and political risk.

Yes: Political risk. Or, as he puts in a nice legal euphemism, "jurisdictional diversification."

Litigation risk is the old reason. You could get hit by a crazy lawsuit here in the U.S. The wealthy are an easy mark, and anything onshore is vulnerable. But the U.S. courts don't have jurisdiction overseas and if you plan things right you have at least some chance of protecting money held offshore, Duggan says. "It keeps you away from our court system and the caprices of our courts," he says.

The new reason, though, is political risk: "Diversification from our government, policies and banking systems," says Duggan. The last few years have shaken faith in our system. Duggan says growing numbers of his clients are worried about the financial system, confiscation -- the whole shebang. "They're concerned about our government and where our society is headed. There's a lot of socialistic tendencies, capital controls, the redistribution of wealth."

Once again it's easy to scoff. Financially, the very wealthy have probably never had it so good in this country. Corporate profits and financial assets are booming. Tax rates on dividends and long-term capital gains are very, very low. But Duggan says the wealthy feel under attack, and government rhetoric is making them nervous.

But there's a problem here. Imagine a future government did decide to confiscate assets. They'd go after the money you held in Switzerland just as much as the money you held in New York, and the penalties for tax evasion would be as medieval as they are now.

The only way to save your money would presumably be to renounce your citizenship and move into exile. Even then the IRS might come after you. Do you want to spend the rest of your life living next to Roman Polanski in France?

Once again, all this makes you see the appeal of holding some gold within a portfolio.

Personally, I don't see any reason to think this administration is going to go after the so-called 1%. Too many policymakers are members of that elite group already -- or they have high hopes of joining after they retire.

More from SmartMoney.com:

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Why rich stash cash offshore