Article 6 - Assistance In The Collection of Taxes - SAARC Members

ARTICLE 6 ASSISTANCE IN THE COLLECTION OF TAXES 1. The Member States shall lend assistance to each other in the collection of revenue claims. The Competent Authorities of the Member States may, by mutual agreement, settle the mode of application of this Article. 2. The term revenue claim as used in this Article means an amount owed in respect of taxes covered by the Agreement together with interest, penalties and costs of collection or conservancy related to such amount. 3. When a revenue claim of a Member State is enforceable under the laws of that Member State and is owed by a person who, at that time, cannot, under the laws of that Member State, prevent its collection, that revenue claim shall, at the request of the Competent Authority of that Member State, be accepted for purposes of collection by the Competent Authority of the other Member State, and that revenue claim shall be collected by that other Member State in accordance with the provisions of its laws applicable to the enforcement and collection of its own taxes as if the revenue claim were a revenue claim of that other Member State. 4. When a revenue claim of a Member State is a claim in respect of which that Member State may, under its law, take measures of conservancy with a view to ensure its collection, that revenue claim shall, at the request of the Competent Authority of that Member State, be accepted for purposes of taking measures of conservancy by the Competent Authority of the other Member State. That other Member State shall take measures of conservancy in respect of that revenue claim in accordance with the provisions of its laws as if the revenue claim were a revenue claim of that other Member State even if, at the time when such measures are applied, the revenue claim is not enforceable in the first-mentioned Member State or is owed by a person who has a right to prevent its collection. 5. The provisions of this Article shall be invoked on request of a Member State only after all permissible measures of recovery under the domestic laws of that Member State have been exhausted. 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 3 and 4, a revenue claim accepted by a Member State for purposes of paragraph 3 or 4 shall not, in that Member State, be subject to the time limits or accorded any priority applicable to a revenue claim under the laws of that Member State by reason of its nature as such. In addition, a revenue claim accepted by a Member State for the purposes of paragraph 3 or 4 shall not, in that Member State, have any priority applicable to that revenue claim under the laws of the other Member State. 7. Proceedings with respect to the existence, validity or the amount of a revenue claim of a Member State shall only be brought before the courts or administrative bodies of that Member State. Nothing in this Article shall be construed as creating or providing any right to such proceedings before any court or administrative body of the other Member State. 8. Where, at any time after a request has been made by a Member State under paragraph 3 or 4 and before the other Member State has collected and remitted the relevant revenue claim to the first-mentioned Member State, the relevant revenue claim ceases to be: (a) in the case of a request under paragraph 3, a revenue claim of the first-mentioned Member State that is enforceable under the laws of that Member State and is owed by a person who, at that time, cannot, under the laws of that Member State, prevent its collection, or (b) in the case of a request under paragraph 4, a revenue claim of the first-mentioned Member State in respect of which that Member State may, under its laws, take measures of conservancy with a view to ensure its collection. The Competent Authority of the first-mentioned Member State shall promptly notify the Competent Authority of the other Member State of that fact and, at the option of the other Member State, the first-mentioned Member State shall either suspend or withdraw its request. 9. In no case shall the provisions of this Article be construed so as to impose on a Member State the obligation: (a) to carry out administrative measures at variance with the laws and administrative practice of that or of the other Member State; (b) to carry out measures which would be contrary to public policy (ordre public); (c) to provide assistance if the other Member State has not pursued all reasonable measures of collection or conservancy, as the case may be, available under its laws or administrative practices; (d) to provide assistance in those cases where the administrative burden for that Member State is clearly disproportionate to the benefit to be derived by the other Member State.