Amendment on retrospective tax law a message to investors, says PM Modi

Modi had a virtual interaction with the heads of India’s missions in foreign nations as well as the stakeholders of the trade and commerce sector

The government’s move to do away with retrospective taxation gave a clear message to all investors about its decisiveness, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as he asked New Delhi’s envoys to the foreign nations to focus on creating new markets for exports from India.

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of stability in doing business. He said that the decision to get rid of retrospective taxation showed consistency in policies and gave a clear message to all the investors that India was not only opening the doors of new possibilities, but the decisive Government of India had the will to fulfil its promises.

His comment came on a day the Lok Sabha passed a Bill to amend the Income Tax Act 1961, which would end retrospective taxation of capital gains arising out of the sale of assets located in India. It was one of the promises the Bharatiya Janata Party had made for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 when Modi led the party to a landslide victory and had taken over as the Prime Minister. His government delivered on the promise seven years later.

The Prime Minister had a virtual interaction with the heads of India’s missions in foreign nations as well as the stakeholders of the trade and commerce sector. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also attended the interaction. The interaction also witnessed the participation of Secretaries of more than 20 departments, state government officials, members of the Export Promotion Councils and Chambers of Commerce.

The Prime Minister listed four factors that are very important for increasing exports. Manufacturing in the country has increased manifold and that has to be qualitatively competitive. Second, The problems of transport, logistics should be removed for that centre, states and private stakeholders will have to work continuously. Third, The government should walk shoulder to shoulder with the exporters and, finally, the international market for Indian products needs to be expanded. He said only when these four factors are synergized, India will be able to achieve the goal of Make in India for the world in a better way.

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