India, Mauritius to hold fresh talks on tax treaty issues

Mauritius maintains that the rules in the country are too stringent to allow any kind of round- tripping to take place

Mauritius on Thursday said it has invited Indian authorities for a fresh round of dialogue to sort out the issues related to their bilateral tax treaty and discussions are expected to be held later this month or in early October.

"We have now invited the Indian authorities to a new round of discussions within the context of the Joint Working Group (JWG) that is looking at the double taxation treaty," Mauritius Vice Prime Minister Xavier-Luc Duval said here.

The Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) has been mutually beneficial to both the countries, Duval said.

"We expect to have it (the meeting) in Mauritius as early as later this month or next month. I believe efforts from both sides will help in having a win-win situation," said Duval, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Development.

He was speaking on the opening day of a two-day global conference on private equity, which is being attended by more than 140 foreign delegates.

The conference is being organised by the Board of Investment (BoI), the Mauritius government's investment promotion agency, at this picturesque coastal city.

The proposed talks on taxation treaty comes against the backdrop of apprehensions in India that the pact is being misused to route unaccounted money into the country from here even though Mauritius has always been maintaining that it has strict checks and balances in place.

However, Mauritius has always maintained that the rules in the country are too stringent to allow any kind of round- tripping to take place and it has always been prompt in responding to all taxation and other regulatory and administrative queries from India with regard to suspected tax evaders.

Discussions on changes to the DTAA has been in the works for a long time and the JWG was set up in this regard. The first meeting of the group was held way back in December 2011.

Mauritius accounts for one of the biggest flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India and accounts for about 38 per cent of the total such investments.