Cong attacks govt for exempting FIIs from MAT levy

Congress today attacked government for deciding against levying Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on capital gains made by FIIs retrospectively and questioned whether India has now become a "tax haven".
"This government forms policies, takes decisions and makes statements without applying their mind to it...Convoluted manner of decision-making has become the hallmark of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here while commenting on the government's decision taken yesterday.
He said Jaitley had just three months back said that government will press ahead with the Rs 40,000 crore tax demand on FIIs as it was "reasonable" and wondered how he had found the tax demand "unreasonable" now.

Posing a number of questions to the PM and the FM on the issue, Singhvi asked, "Has India become a tax haven now?"
He also questioned how the Modi government would be answerable to Parliament for "blatantly waiving" Rs 40,000 crore owed to the Indian people.
Taking a dig at Jaitley, he said "Having declared in the Parliament that Rs 40,000 crore tax would not be waived, now he is giving it to cronies."

Singhvi said the country wanted concrete answers to these questions and any hedging on the same on part of the government will indicate towards and prove "under the table deals and compromise of national interest".

Jaitley yesterday announced that the government has accepted the recommendations of the Justice A P Shah panel which said that there is no basis for levy of MAT for the period prior to April 1, 2015.
The Finance Minister has, in his budget for 2015-16, exempted FIIs from payment of MAT with effect from April.