Felix Chaudhary 
[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/ Facebook]
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad says Fiji is still on the European Union’s Blacklist for being a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction.
“Fiji is still on the EU blacklist, we are working very hard on that,” he said during a debate in Parliament this week on the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit’s 2023 Annual Report.
“We are also part of a regional project on correspondence banking relationship and Fiji has contributed towards that project.
“It is the first regional project funded by the World Bank which was approved within a year and is now being implemented by the Forum Secretariat. Part of the consensus with respect to correspondence banking relationship is also with respect to putting in processes and mechanisms to deal with AML issues and I know that FIU engaged with 180 AML compliance offices of financial institutions.
“They are also providing training and awareness to 31 employees of financial institutions and FIU also manages a database containing around 30 million financial transactions, but, as Honourable Naupoto stated, very clearly, there is a need to review the Act and look at how we can work with different agencies to improve and combat some of those undesirable transactions and money laundering that happens.”
In 2019, the European Commission said over the year, it had assessed 92 countries based on three criteria — tax transparency, good governance, and real economic activity, as well as one indicator, the existence of a zero corporate tax rate.
Based on the EC’s screening, 15 countries, including Fiji, were blacklisted.
