The Finance Minister of India, Pranab Mukherjee, said that India is an attractive place for the investors. The statement has been made despite the controversial plans to make foreign companies retroactively liable for taxes.
Mukherjee added that the decision to invest is not made solely on the basis of tax concessions. The finance minister was trying to calm the issue of the proposed legislation to chase the overseas firms on mergers that involve Indian assets.
Mukherjee on April 21, 2012 was quoted saying that the decision to put money in to an economy is “based on what’s the size of the market, whether the systems are transparent and what’s the purchasing power of people”. India has a population of 1.2 billion people and still remains an attractive country to invest.
The Finance Minister was speaking on the sidelines of the meetings of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. It was expected that the Indian government would plug the merger tax loopholes in its budget last month. But on the other hand the retrospective nature of the legislation has led to an international outcry in a time when it needs some foreign investments so as to upgrade dilapidated infrastructure.
