Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the goods and services tax (GST), the Bill for which has been introduced in Parliament, is expected to be rolled out in 2016.
Speaking at the Indo-German Summit hosted by Nasscom here, Modi said he wants to make sure that India’s tax regime is transparent and predictable so that genuine investors and honest taxpayers get quick and fair decisions on tax matters.
Stating that the Centre has taken decisive steps to remove the long-pending concerns of investors, Modi said: “We will not resort to retrospective taxation and have reinforced this position by not going for imposition of a Minimum Alternate Tax on FPIs (foreign portfolio investors).”
Since domestic financial resources are insufficient to meet the country’s needs, the government has liberalised the FDI regime, allowing 100 per cent FDI in railways, and enhanced the FDI limit to 49 per cent in Defence and insurance.
The FDI policy for construction and medical devices has also been refined.
In order to build futuristic physical and social infrastructure in the country, the India Investment and Infrastructure Fund has been set up.
“We have targeted an annual flow of ₹20,000 crore into this fund from our own resources. We are putting in place a professional team for asset management and have also come up with the mechanism of tax-free infrastructure bonds for projects in the rail, road and irrigation sectors,” said Modi.
A comprehensive National IPR policy is being finalised to protect the Intellectual Property Rights of all innovators and entrepreneurs, which was reviewed by Modi last week.
As a result of a number of initiatives by the Government, the sentiment for private investment and inflow of foreign investment has turned positive.
India has also jumped 16 places on the World Economic Forum’s global competitive index after five years of decline.
Also, India is ranked No 1 among the top global destinations for greenfield investments in the first half of 2015.