No revisions in main provisions of DTAA with India: Mauritius PM
Prime Minister of Mauritius, Anerood Jugnauth, on Tuesday said there will be no revisions to the main provisions of its Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with India as both countries are happy with the existing provisions of the tax treaty.
“This treaty between our two countries has been there for a very long time, it has been doing very well. We all are very happy. Well I hope it keeps on like this. I don’t know whether there will be a revised treaty. There won’t be any revisions of the main provisions of the treaty,” Jugnauth told The Indian Express. DTAA is a bilateral pact designed to develop trade and investment between two nations by avoiding double taxation.
India has been trying to negotiate the three-decade-old tax treaty with Mauritius for the past few years to check round tripping and other treaty abuses. Round-tripping is usually referred to routing of domestic investments through Mauritius to take advantage of the DTAA between the two countries.
Mauritius has been reluctant to make any changes. The fresh negotiations are part of India’s efforts to sharpen its focus to locate and bring back illegal funds parked by its citizens in global tax havens.
In the last fifteen years from April 2000 to June 2015, almost 35 per cent or Rs 4.38 lakh crore of foreign investments into India has come through the island nation.
Jugnauth on Tuesday said that Mauritius has adequate laws to prevent corruption and money laundering. “There is lots of exaggeration. There is no money laundering. Our financial system is very transparent,” said Jugnauth.
