Mumbai: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) have signed an agreement to cooperate on administration of tax and customs duties to boost trade and economic ties among the three countries.

Under the agreement, revenue authorities of the three countries would exchange information to help identify high-risk transactions and speed up processing of imports and exports. The authorities would also share information on tax, particularly the abuse of tax avoidance arrangements and schemes.

The agreement was signed in Pretoria by India''s revenue secretary K M Chandrasekhar, South Africa''s receiver of revenue Pravin Gordhan and Brazil''s federal revenue secretary Jorge Rachid at the close of a three-day inaugural meeting of the IBSA heads of revenue administrations.

The three countries have agreed to set up an IBSA Revenue Administration Working Group to further improve cooperation among the respective revenue authorities, Gordhan said.

"The main agreement also seeks to thwart smuggling, drug trafficking, fraud and tax avoidance in the three nations," he said, adding, "Where appropriate, we have agreed to perform simultaneous tax audits on common business entities."