NEW DELHI: Indian business leaders credited visiting US President Donald Trump with getting them a lower corporate tax rate, even as US-India Strategic Partnership forum (USISPF) on Tuesday launched an US-India Tax Forum, which would try and get businesses and the Indian government together to solve complicated tax issues dogging investments and trade between the two nations.
Sources said the Reliance Group chief Mukesh Ambani thanked Trump at a closed-door meeting between the latter and Indian CEOs for setting a tax precedent in the US, which had ripple effects.
“In India, we would have never imagined that income-tax rates would come down… all of us in the business community are grateful,” Ambani was quoted as saying. The US had slashed corporate tax rates, a move which was followed by India, which slashed rates from 33 per cent to 22 per cent last year.
Trump said, “They (Indian government) followed us,” implying the Indian tax cut was a follow up of the US decision. The US President also reportedly told another business leader that his government would in another 7-8 months ensure that regulations for technology companies would be eased.
The forum launched today by the USISPF would take up, in India’s case, residential status for taxation, GAAR, an indirect transfer of assets, rules governing tax shopping by MNCs, etc.
The USISPF Tax Forum will bring over 50 tax experts from Fortune 500 companies together with senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, Central Board Direct Tax, GST Council and Customs Board Indirect Tax & Customs. The Forum will meet on a regular basis with the government to share feedback on transparency and efficiency in tax policy.