By Arul Louis,

United Nations, (IANS) : India has contributed $100,000 to a UN fund to promote the participation of developing countries in a panel dealing with international cooperation in tax matters.

Ashish Sinha, a First Secretary in India’s Mission to the UN, handed over the cheque for the UN Tax Fund to Shari Spiegel, chief of the Policy Development and Analysis Branch of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Desa) on Tuesday.

“This voluntary contribution will be dedicated towards ensuring greater support for developing country participation in the subcommittee meetings of the UN Tax Committee,” the UN said.

India is the first country to respond to an appeal for contributions made in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda for sustainable development adopted at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in 2015, according to the UN.

The UN Trust Fund for International Cooperation in Tax Matters, which is generally known as the Tax Fund, supports the activities of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in tax matters.

The committee helps deal with taxation issues involving developed and developing countries.

One of its function is to review and update UN Model Double Taxation Convention between Developed and Developing Countries and the Manual for the Negotiation of Bilateral Tax Treaties between Developed and Developing Countries, according to the UN.

The Tax Fund contribution is one of the many voluntary donations India makes to the UN in addition to the mandated contribution, which totalled $34.28 million in 2016.

Earlier in June, New Delhi launched the India-UN Development Partnership Fund with an initial contribution of $1 million to help the poorest countries achieve the world organisation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce poverty and raise the quality of life.

In April, India gave $250,000 to UN programmes for helping countries hold elections and develop their electoral systems.

In 2016, New Delhi also gave $500,000 to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), $100,000 for Haiti cholera relief and $250,000 for the General Assembly President’s office.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)