ITICnet.org Weekly Round-Up 20 April

UNCTAD Holds E-Commerce Week in Geneva

This week in Geneva, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) convened its fourth edition of " E-Commerce Week ," under the theme "Development Dimensions of Digital Platforms."    The meeting brought together senior government officials, business executives, international organizations, civil society representatives, and academics to explore how digital platforms can lead to sustainable development.   Highlights from "E-Commerce Week" include: Regulation must steer not stifle innovation “How can we find sufficient balance between incentivizing innovators, players, to continue driving inclusion while not sacrificing the responsibility of regulators to keep away illegal commercialization of confidential and personal data, abuse of privacy rules?” --  Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General [ Full Article ] ---------------------------------------------------- Digital technologies provide fertile ground for Africa "Mindful of its own experience in building a single digital market, the European Union is dedicated to helping Africa do likewise and help unleash the transformative power of e-commerce on the continent."  -- Mariya Gabriel, EU Digital Economy and Society Commissioner [ Full Article ]

UNCTAD Releases  Policy Brief  on Digitalization and Trade

Last week, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a new  policy brief  entitled, "Digitalization and Trade: A holistic policy approach is needed." Recognizing the effect digitalization will have on businesses and consumers, this  policy brief  focuses on the importance of a "strong international effort to ensure that no one is left behind in the transition to a digital economy." [ Full Paper]

India GST Update

ITIC Advisor Sumit Majumder recently wrote an article for  India Legal  entitled, "GST So Far: Has It Worked?"    Looking back on the past nine months since India implemented GST, this article focuses on the following fundamental issues: "Did the policy decisions work out well? Were they properly implemented? Was the technology support adequate? What was the impact?" [ Full Article ]

PwC Transfer Pricing Tax Insights

Following the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 22 March report containing "additional guidance on attribution of profits to permanent establishments," PwC released a new edition of  Tax Insights Tax Policy Bulletin  to   "provide an overview of the March 22 OECD Report, covering the background and mandate, content, and main takeaways." [ Tax Policy Bulletin]

India Releases Draft Notification for Comments under BEPS Action 5

The Income Tax Department of the Government of India recently released a draft notification for stakeholder comments regarding the implementation of the OECD's proposals under Action 5 of the base erosion and profit shifting project, with comments requested by 25 April. [ More Information]

New Regulations on Tax Holidays in Indonesia

At the end of March, Indonesia's Minister of Finance signed into law (effective 4 April) new regulations on tax holidays. More information on the new regulations is available in the 11 April edition of EY's Global Tax Alert.

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