Mauritius, often accused of being a route for round-tripping of funds by Indians, today conveyed to Indian Government that it was ready to support its Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth black money.
This was conveyed to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade Arvin Boolell during a meeting here, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said. Boolell conveyed that Mauritius will take measures to ensure it remains “jurisdiction of repute”, he said.
Mauritius used to be the biggest gateway for flow of funds into India through FDI as well as FII routes, but its position has come down amid concerns about this island nation being used for round-tripping of funds.
It recently slipped to the second place after the US in terms of quantum of money being brought in by overseas investors into Indian markets. According to Sebi, Mauritius accounted for Rs 3.31 lakh crore worth ‘assets under custody’ of foreign institutional investors in the Indian equity and debt markets at the end of 2013, as against over Rs 4.37 lakh crore in case of the US.
Fund flows from Mauritius have fallen amid concerns about suspected money-laundering, even though this Indian Ocean island nation has been consistently denying such allegations.