The article stress that IFFs should be placed as one of development priorities for the next 15 years – with the Millennium Development Goals expiring in 2015. The costs of IFFs justifies the point, 20 sub-Saharan Africa countries are estimated to have lost more than 10% of their GDPs since 1980, while Africa as a whole is still estimated to be losing 3.4% of GDP, that is, US$76 billion each year. Illicit cash flows are not necessarily strictly illegal. Money laundering – transferring the proceeds of crime through apparently legitimate channels – is clearly illegal and the subject of stringent checks in the banking sector. Abuse of power by kleptocratic regimes to skim off a country’s wealth into Swiss bank accounts at the expense of the rest of society is morally wrong and often also criminal. What is less clear-cut is the avoidance of tax; while being legal in the strict sense of the word, this is frowned on by society. Recently, this has become a big story in some countries as multinational companies have, quite legitimately, minimised their tax liabilities.
Click on an image to view it in the image viewer
There are no comments for this item.