Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met top US officials here and raised India’s concerns over key bilateral issues, including totalisation agreement and the proposed Bilateral Investment Treaty.
In a series of meetings with US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative Mike Froman, Jaitley discussed bilateral issues of mutual interests and concerns. “There has been a continuous dialogue (between the two governments in the last one year),” said the Finance Minister.
Mr. Jaitley who is on a nine-day US tour and is currently is in Washington also flagged off some of the important issues for India, including the totalisation agreement. The totalisation agreement aims to protect interests of professionals of Indian-origin who contribute more than $ 1 billion each year to the US social security.
“We had our own concerns with regard to the totalisation agreement so that our professionals could get the benefit which are otherwise being denied to them,” Mr. Jaitley said. India has signed BIPAs (Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement) with over 80 countries. However, it has put a freeze on these agreements following a spate of suits from telecom companies.
Retrospective taxation
Terming the controversial retrospective taxation regime a “legacy issue”, Mr. Jaitley has assured US investors that the government does not intend to legislate retrospectively and is looking to put a “quietus” to the matter. Mr. Jaitley said the government has categorically made it clear that “we do not intend to legislate retrospectively. We do not intend that any fresh action under the old retrospectively laws be taken.”
“So for the future, this is a closed issue. And the investors are quite appreciative of that. As far as past is concerned it relates to only some individual companies and the issue is pending before some judicial or dispute redressal mechanism body,” he told reporters here.
“And therefore, when I said we are looking for putting a quietus to this, I had in mind waiting for the expeditious disposal of that dispute,” Mr. Jaitley said.
