{"id":134963,"date":"2015-03-15T23:37:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T23:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/151.106.38.4\/2015\/03\/15\/no-retro-tax-but-cairn-is-legacy-issue-arun-jaitley\/"},"modified":"2015-03-15T23:37:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T23:37:48","slug":"no-retro-tax-but-cairn-is-legacy-issue-arun-jaitley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/2015\/03\/15\/no-retro-tax-but-cairn-is-legacy-issue-arun-jaitley\/","title":{"rendered":"No retro tax but Cairn is legacy issue: Arun Jaitley"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley concluded his two-day visit here with a message to the global investing community that India\u2019s stated position now was not to impose any retrospective tax but that the one slapped on Cairn was a \u201clegacy\u201d issue.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen the new government had come in, I had stated the policy of the new government that it would not move in the direction of any retrospective legislation on tax issues,\u201d Jaitley told a press conference here late Saturday.<\/div>\n
\u201cBut when earlier notices and legacy issues are concerned, they\u2019ll have to be sorted out. There is a due judicial process. We\u2019ve stuck to it. Wherever in an earlier issue the judicial process has decided some issue, as in some recent cases, we\u2019ve accepted them,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
The finance minister also added that such a recourse was available to any company.<\/div>\n
\u201cAlso, any fresh notices or new action will ordinarily not be done. If any assessing of our officer wants to take such action, the clearance of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will be required.\u201d<\/div>\n
During his meetings with the business community here over several engagements, the issue raised with concern pertained to tax authorities in India slapping a $3.2-billion capital gains tax on Cairn India, a part of the Vedanta Group now, for a transaction some 10 years ago.<\/div>\n
The Indian arm of Cairn was sold by the British parent and the acquirer company now has been asked to pay capital gains for not withholding such a levy. Such a tax was not explicitly in existence at that time, was introduced in 2012 with retrospective effect.<\/div>\n
Britain-based Vodafone faces a similar dilemma when it acquired its Indian mobile assets and so do some 30-odd companies. This issue been a major cause for concern among foreign investors — and more so now after the present government said there will be no such fresh demands.<\/div>\n
The finance minister said even as India and its policies were being closely watched by the global investing community, what really mattered was whether it was moving in the right direction as promised or moving backward.<\/div>\n
\u201cI think we are moving in one consistent direction,\u201d he said. \u201cThe is a huge amount of interest about India and people are looking at the areas to invest in India. We are back on the radar of investors.\u201d<\/div>\n
During his visit, Jaitley had a host of engagements, including meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Leader of Opposition Edward Miliband and Indian-origin lawmaker Keith Vaz, and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.<\/div>\n
He also gave a talk at an event co-hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and UK-India Business Council, made a presentation to global investors on \u201cIndia Insights\u201d organised by JP Morgan and addressed members of the London Stock Exchange.<\/div>\n
Jaitley\u2019s other engagements included unveiling of Gandhi statue in Parliament Square with Prime Minister David Cameron, talks with Prince Charles, and meeting with a delegation of the Confederation of British Industry, led by director general John Cridland.<\/div>\n
During his several meetings, concern over India\u2019s tax system figured prominently even as the finance minister sought to assure them that his government was overhauling the country\u2019s tax system to make it fair and equitable.<\/div>\n
\u201cWe are trying to rationalise taxes – that is, lower taxes and introduce an on-adversarial, fair system,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cWe need a lot of investment in India. We need to ease the process of doing business. Therefore, slowly we are introducing changes in that direction.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley concluded his two-day visit here with a message to the global investing community that India\u2019s stated position now was not to impose any retrospective tax but that the one slapped on Cairn was a \u201clegacy\u201d issue. \u201cWhen the new government had come in, I had stated the policy of the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}