G-20 commitment on info exchange important achievement: Pranab

"From India's point of view, this is one important achievement that it (paragraph relating to exchange of information) has found a place in the communiqué," he told reporters during a stopover here on his way back from Paris to New Delhi.

Mukherjee was in the French capital to attend the two-day meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

Although Mukherjee was happy with the inclusion of India's concerns over black money in the communiqué, he appeared dissatisfied over the decision of the G-20 ministers to defer discussions and a decision on important issues like volatile commodity prices, the currency war, developmental problems and a financial transaction tax (also called Tobin tax) to Mexico ministerial meetings.

Mexico will take over the chair of the G-20 in 2012. The issue of black money has been haunting the UPA government in India for some time now, with the Opposition and civil society accusing it of not doing enough to bring back illegal funds stashed abroad.

With regard to the exchange of information, the communiqué, which was issued after two days of hectic deliberations, Mukherjee said, stressed on the need for comprehensive exchange of information in respect of banking and taxation.

"Our efforts will be to strengthen it (sharing of information) further and to recommend it to the leaders so that there is strong articulation of the issue... (in order) to get banking information and tax information spontaneously," Mukherjee said.

The leaders of the G-20, which is a club of rich and developing countries, will be meeting at Cannes, in France, on November 3 and 4. They are expected to come out with concrete steps to deal with global financial and economic problems, besides articulating views on other issues concerning the world.

Mukherjee attributed the G-20's decision to take on board India's concern over black money to his persuasive deliberations with his counterparts from important member countries like the US, France and Australia.

"On this issue (of exchange of information), I had a very positive response from US Treasury Secretary (Timothy Geithner), French Finance Minister (Francois Baroin) and Australian Finance Minister (Wayne Swan)," he added.

Mukherjee further said that during his opening remarks at the ministerial meeting, he had suggested that a beginning on sharing of banking taxation information should be made by G-20 member countries on a voluntary basis.

"They (G-20 nations) should voluntarily share information... the flow of information should be uninterrupted without any hindrance, including banking information... The established standards could be followed by others," the minister said. The G-20 member nations account for 85 per cent of global output and two-thirds of the world's population.

On the issue of financial transaction tax, Mukherjee said, "Some countries have strong reservations... It (the issue) has not been mentioned in the communiqué." The issue will be discussed during the Mexico meetings, he said, adding that the problems caused by volatility in commodity and oil prices will also be deliberated at the next meeting in Mexico.

Answering questions on the vexed issue of bailing out of the euro zone by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mukherjee said, "It was agreed that let them determine solvency... There should be a credible assessment about the extent of liabilities of sovereign debt and how they are going to fund it."

The G-20, despite opposition from certain countries, also agreed to continue with the roll-back of New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) into quotas. "The process of roll-back of NAB should be completed and the quota reforms of the IMF should be completed within the mandated period of time (end of 2012)," he said.

On the sovereign debt crisis, he said the European nations would be meeting on October 23 and it is expected that their suggestions would be taken up by leaders at the Cannes Summit next month.

On augmenting the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mukherjee said it could enter into different agreements to raise funds. However, he added, there was also a need to augment the resources of the World Bank, which plays a crucial role in funding developmental projects in developing nations.

"The World Bank requires additional resources to make investment in developing countries... A situation is arising that the net lending of the World Bank would be less than in previous years," he said.

Answering questions on the impact of the global crisis on the Indian economy, Mukherjee said it does have a bearing on export and foreign investments -- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII).

In addition, there could be problems in areas like External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs), he said, adding that India does not allow companies to raise external loans freely. The companies raising ECBs are required to follow the guidelines laid by the Finance Ministry as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).