At today’s G20 meeting, Finance Ministers have failed to keep the promise they made to developing countries in April, ActionAid says.

At the London summit in April, the G20 made a commitment to deliver proposals on tax havens to benefit developing countries by the end of 2009. But today’s communiqué merely suggests “the possible use of a multilateral instrument” for this purpose.

ActionAid’s Martin Hearson, who is at the summit, said: “This is a real disappointment. The communiqué is vague and unsubstantiated and leaves developing nations out in the cold as far as tackling tax evasion is concerned.

“We now have a two two-tier system: tax havens must exchange information with rich countries or face the threat of powerful sanctions, but there is no pressure on them to do the same with poorer nations, which suffer the most from tax evasion.

“The G20 promised that developing countries would not be left out of the tax haven crackdown, and today was their last chance. They’ve gone back on that promise – at least for now.

“We will continue to push for a better outcome in 2010.”