World Bank president praises India's decision to slash corporate taxes

World Bank President David Malpass on Saturday appreciated the government's decision to slash corporate tax and said the move will help in the further growth of the economy.

"India has taken a good step with the recent cut in the corporate tax rate that will add to growth," Malpass said while addressing media after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In September, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a reduction in the country's effective corporate tax rate from around 35 per cent to 25 per cent. For companies that do not avail of any other incentive or commission, the effective tax rate would be just 22 per cent.

Malpass, who is on a visit to India, met Prime Minister Modi and discussed various topics including the financial sector, water, education, skilling and importance of data.

"I had an interesting meeting with Prime Minister Modi and discussed varied topics We talked about the financial sector, data...We talked about water, education, and skilling," he said.

Modi and Malpass also discussed various aspects of the financial sector. "We discussed ways that the financial sector can move forward and add to growth within India," he said.

Lauding the Indian economy's growth and progress, World Bank President said, "India's financial sector has made financial progress in terms of monitoring of assets, bankruptcy process. In terms of deepening of the banking system and looking for ways to the way forward. "

Malpass's visit to India comes in the backdrop of the recently released World Bank report on Ease of Doing Business 2020. As per the survey, India has remarkably improved in ease of doing business. The country is placed in the 63rd position among 190 countries.

According to the report issued by the World Bank on Thursday, India appeared among the top 10 improvers for the third time in a row. The Bank lauded New Delhi for a "remarkable reform effort".

"I should note India made progress and move up to 63 in the ranking and there was progress on registering the business on trading across borders, resolving insolvency, dealing with construction permits, registering property, trading across boards and paying taxes indicators," the World Bank president said.