Industry seeks reform in tax rules for investment trusts

With the union budget coming up Feb 28, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Sunday said it should focus on stability and certainty in taxation towards encouraging the growth of investment trusts.

"The first full-fledged budget of the new government should consider reforming taxation rules for effective functioning of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Securitisation Trusts and Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) Trusts," CII said in a press release issued here.

"The current regime for taxation of such investment pools is replete with tax asymmetries resulting from risk of uncertainty and multiple taxation," it added.

Saying that AIFs, Securitisation Trusts and ARC Trusts are pools of long- term capital and key to providing investment funds, CII said: "For such trusts to effectively deliver their objective of providing long-term funds to the economy, there is an urgent need to provide them with a conducive tax regime."

While AIFs are collective investment pools and provide risk capital to all sizes of companies, most of which are unlisted companies, the ARCs help in facilitating smooth operation of financial institutions and banks, the statement added.