Tax-dodging crackdown ‘could end hunger by 2025’
By Phoebe Cooke
Impoverished countries could eliminate poverty by 2025 if they received back just a quarter of the money currently lost to tax-dodging multinational companies, according to the Enough Food IF campaign.
The IF campaign warned there is 'a grave danger' that any tax-dodging deal will leave out poor countries, despite this weekend's summit on tax, trade and transparency.
The weekend meeting is being hosted by prime minister David Cameron two days before the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, where G8 representatives will attempt to lay the foundations towards a bold new tax reform deal.
IF spokesperson, Melanie Ward, said: "Tax dodging is immoral and indefensible wherever it takes place, but in the poorest states in the world it has a particularly high human cost.
"To allow billions to be drained out of poor countries and into tax havens, while millions of people still go hungry is scandalous.
"The pervasive corporate secrecy supplied by tax havens is at the root of the problem."
Ward added that the prime minister has "a once in a lifetime opportunity to help secure an end to tax dodging in poor countries in the coming days as he hosts the world’s richest club: the G8".
She urged the prime minister to act urgently, warning Cameron to deliver a deal that works for the world's poorest, as well as its richest countries.
"We are in grave danger of a G8 deal which leaves poor countries out in the cold, and which fails to demolish the walls of secrecy provided by tax havens and phantom firms," Ward warned.
To highlight their cause, IF campaigners are opening 'The Isle of Shady', a pop-up tropical tax haven on London's South Bank later today. The Isle comes complete with shady businessmen, giant palm trees, and a treasure chest.
