Swedish govt has high expectations from Modi

Swedish firms want removal of complexities in tax norms

Sweden, the first country in the European Union that had warmed up to Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat, is keenly awaiting the maiden Budget of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

According to a recent Swedish Chamber of Commerce study, Swedish companies want the Indian government to do away with complex tax rules and red tapism.

Fredrika Ornbrant, Swedish Consul General in Mumbai, hopes that the trade and investments will grow and companies from both the countries will expand their businesses or invest in greenfield projects.

"There are high expectations from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. Sweden is waiting for the first Budget to be presented by the federal government," Ornbrant told Business Standard.

Trade between two countries as on 2012 stood at $2.5 billion. She informed that Sweden's main exports to India are in the areas of machineries, paper and pulp products, chemicals and telecom equipment. On the other hand, the main items of Indian exports are apparels and textiles, vehicles and auto parts, machineries and chemical products.

Ornbrant said Sweden is the 12th largest foreign investor in India with investment of $ 1 billion. “There is no specific target for trade but Sweden is quite optimistic that it will increase,” she said.

According to the consul general, the number of Swedish companies in India has doubled since 2005. Today, there are about 170 Swedish companies and on an average one company enters the Indian market every month. Swedish companies directly employ around 80,000 people and indirectly 500,000.

Ornbrant said the study showed that eight out of 10 companies plan to increase their operations in the next three years. Almost half of the them will increase their investment with 10 per cent or more compared to the previous year. A majority of them plan to increase employment by five per cent or more by end of 2014.