Activists seek transaction tax
Source: Agencies |
November 4, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
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ACTIVISTS are pressuring global leaders meeting for the Group of 20 summit to impose higher taxes on financial transactions in order to raise millions of dollars to fight poverty and deprivation around the world.
Groups including Oxfam, the World Wildlife Foundation and others organized events yesterday around the chic resort town of Cannes on France's Cote d'Azur to draw attention to the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions.
Multibillionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined the call, traveling to Cannes to urge G20 leaders to consider the tax and other innovative ways to help poor nations.
British actor Bill Nighy led an Oxfam news conference promoting the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions. "I am here specifically to promote on behalf of Oxfam the Robin Hood tax," Nighy said. "A tiny tax, fifty pence, in English terms, on every 1,000 pounds (US$1,596) generated on the kind of casino-style sterile, nonproductive banking that takes place in cyberspace."
New recession or no, rich countries need to keep helping poorer nations, and countries that have pulled themselves out of poverty should do more to help, too, Gates said.
Gates came to the summit to urge G20 leaders to keep their eyes trained on the longer term.
He championed taxes on financial activity as a way to get the private sector to contribute to helping the poor - a tax that activists hail as long overdue and some European countries are championing.
He acknowledged, however, that countries are unlikely to agree on a blanket worldwide tax.
"The world doesn't have one government, so you're just not going to have complete alignment on how tax structures work in all the different countries. I hope some countries look at the tax ideas in the report and consider those," he said.
"The key point is that money makes a huge difference. The way aid is being spent nowadays - focused on innovation, on measurement -means that the impact per dollar of aid is much higher than in the past," he said.
He presented an ambitious and unusual report to the G20 leaders at the request of summit host Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
Groups including Oxfam, the World Wildlife Foundation and others organized events yesterday around the chic resort town of Cannes on France's Cote d'Azur to draw attention to the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions.
Multibillionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined the call, traveling to Cannes to urge G20 leaders to consider the tax and other innovative ways to help poor nations.
British actor Bill Nighy led an Oxfam news conference promoting the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions. "I am here specifically to promote on behalf of Oxfam the Robin Hood tax," Nighy said. "A tiny tax, fifty pence, in English terms, on every 1,000 pounds (US$1,596) generated on the kind of casino-style sterile, nonproductive banking that takes place in cyberspace."
New recession or no, rich countries need to keep helping poorer nations, and countries that have pulled themselves out of poverty should do more to help, too, Gates said.
Gates came to the summit to urge G20 leaders to keep their eyes trained on the longer term.
He championed taxes on financial activity as a way to get the private sector to contribute to helping the poor - a tax that activists hail as long overdue and some European countries are championing.
He acknowledged, however, that countries are unlikely to agree on a blanket worldwide tax.
"The world doesn't have one government, so you're just not going to have complete alignment on how tax structures work in all the different countries. I hope some countries look at the tax ideas in the report and consider those," he said.
"The key point is that money makes a huge difference. The way aid is being spent nowadays - focused on innovation, on measurement -means that the impact per dollar of aid is much higher than in the past," he said.
He presented an ambitious and unusual report to the G20 leaders at the request of summit host Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
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