ISLAMABAD, 06 October 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan stressed on Tuesday the need to end the "illicit flow of money from poor countries to rich capitals, to tax havens, to haven destinations", which he said was "crushing the people in the developing world".

Addressing the 15th UN Conference on Trade and Development via a video link, PM Imran cited data by the UN's Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI) Panel and said $7 trillion was parked in tax havens around the world. The premier lamented that annually, $1tr was transferred from the developing world to tax havens, and held the "corrupt ruling elites of the developing world" responsible for the "plunder".

"This a huge crisis and this is going to get worse" in the coming years, he warned.

Emphasising that this illegal flow of money must be stopped, the prime minister said that the only way to go about it was to implement the recommendations made by the FACTI Panel in this regard.

He added that it was unfortunate that rich countries, which were in the position to curb the practice, were doing little on this front for reasons he identified as a lack of motivation and absence of incentives.

PM Imran explained that the continuing illegal outflow of money from poor countries was increasing difficulties for their populations because it led to the devaluation of currencies, followed by a rise in inflation and eventually, increased poverty.

The prime minister warned that the impact of the illegal practice, however, would not be limited to poor nations.