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India Investment Centre to be recast to attract NRIs

Ashok Tuteja in Dubai

The Indian Investment Centre will soon be restructured to act as a catalyst for attracting foreign investments in a big way and all genuine concerns of Non Resident Indians will be addressed on a priority basis, according to P K Banerji, the new chief commissioner (investments and NRIs) and chairman of the IIC.

Banerji said the government was also seriously looking into the suggestion of the NRIs to issue them NRI cards.

Banerji is in Dubai to interact with the strong Indian business community in the United Arab Emirates and look into its problems, like deposits and properties.

"NRIs do face a lot of problems... They have to run from pillar to post to get things done. We will try to address their grievances," he said.

Banerji said a new Foreign Investment Implementation Authority had been set up in India recently to deal exclusively with NRI investments. The FIIA comprised representatives of the central and state governments.

He regretted that the country had not been able to fully utilise investments to the tune of $ 54 billion approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board since 1991. The actual utilisation was only of the order of $ 17 billion, which amounted to about 30 per cent success rate.

Foreign direct investments in India dropped by about $ 1 billion last year, he added. The FDI's projection for the current year were of the order of $ 2 billion to $ 3 billion.

He complimented the state governments which had established NRI cells to attract foreign investments and resolve the problems of the NRIs.

Banerji said he was fully aware of the concerns of the NRIs in respect of the Foreign Exchange Management Act if it were to replace the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act in its present form.

''All NRI concerns on this issue have been conveyed to the finance ministry. The FEMA Bill itself is in preparatory stages and the prime minister had recently observed that all genuine concerns of the NRIs regarding FEMA will be addressed,'' he said.

FEMA seeks to withdraw an existing facility to the NRIs by introducing a clause which says that if an NRI stays in India for 181 days or beyond under any circumstances, he would be treated as a resident Indian and his income and holdings would be subjected to normal Indian taxation.

Later, addressing a meeting of the overseas Indian economic forum, Banerji assured the NRIs that he would convey their anguish over the repeal of benefits available to them under the Indo-UAE double taxation treaty. ''That particular case which changed the status quo has been referred to the department of revenue under the ministry of finance. But the department has said they have no leeway in the case. I have sought certain clarifications,'' he said.

UNI

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