Mauritius has promised full cooperation with India to address outstanding issues relating to their bilateral tax treaty, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the island nation. The much-talked about changes in India-Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) have been hanging fire for a long time, despite several rounds of official level talks between the two sides.
Apprehensions persist that Mauritius is being used for round-tripping of funds into India even though the island nation has always maintained that there have been no concrete evidence of any such misuse. Mauritius has been one of the largest sources for foreign direct investment in India and inflows touched $ 7.66 billion in the April 2014-January 2015 period.
Reflecting the importance that Mauritius attaches to India, the reference about the bilateral tax agreement was made by its Finance Minister Seetanah lutchmeenaraidoo in his Budget speech "The clear statement made by Prime Minister Modi during his last visit in Mauritius has reassured all stakeholders in the global business sector that India will do nothing to harm this sector," lutchmeenaraidoo, who is also the Economic Development Minister, said.
We will cooperate fully with Indian authorities to bring to a fruitful conclusion our discussions on outstanding issues relating to the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA)," he said while presenting the Budget for 2015-16.