Mauritius offers 2 islands to preserve tax treaty Says They Can Be Turned Into Touris
Is it possible for us to turn into like deigo garcia island
How far will a country go to secure a favourable deal for itself ? Pretty far, it seems. Mauritius has offered a couple of sundrenched islands to India as part of a trade and investment deal. While the offer has been talked about for a while, Mauritius has revived it— at a time when it's very keen on persevering with the 1983 double-taxation avoidance treaty with India.
Mauritius foreign affairs and trade minister Arvin Boolell said it was up to India to use the islands to its advantage. He said the "blue economy" had great potential. India could use North and South Agalega Islands (located 1,100km north of Mauritius and having an official total area of 70 sqkm) for setting up hotels and tourist resorts, for trade, marine studies or for building a strategic presence in the Indian Ocean, official sources told TOI. North Agalega Island also has an airstrip.
In November 2006, TOI had first reported preliminary discussions between the two countries for handover of Agalega Islands.
"There is no problem on the issue," Boolell said when asked if the islands could be handed over to India.
Pressed further, he said, "We want investment to flow into Mauritius... We want India to take advantage — and it is true for other friendly countries — of the tremendous potential of the blue economy, which is the ocean economy."
The offer has been renewed at a time when investment flows into India via Mauritius were threatening to dry up following the proposal to introduce General Anti-Avoidance Rules that aimed at plugging loopholes in the double-taxation avoidance treaty by making disclosure of the source of funds mandatory. Mauritius has maintained that GAAR is creating a lot of uncertainty among investors. 'Mauritius open to change in tax treaty'
New Delhi: In 2006, when the offer of the Agalega Islands was first discussed, India was exerting pressure on Mauritius to amend the treaty and sign a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Subsequently, New Delhi relented amidst suggestions that India had a long link with the African country, with a sizeable population of people with Indianorigin.
"We want to develop as an ocean basket and ocean market," said Mauritius foreign affairs and trade minister Arvin Boolell. "The potential is tremendous. We work very closely with India. We should not forget that India has helped us in marking our territories, has helped us in conducting hydrographic studies and in two years we will acquire an offshore vessel from India under the line of credit that India has offered. We are doing several projects together."
While Boolell indicated that the island nation was open to amendments in the double-taxation avoidance treaty, he denied that there was any misuse.
The discussions between the two countries on the two islands, North and South Agalega Islands — which may give India strategic depth in the Indian Ocean, especially in its fight against piracy — had then focused on the development of hotels and resorts and upgrading an existing airstrip in the island into an airport.
In 2006, sources had told TOI that there was also an option to develop a port on one of the two islands.
There were, however, no discussions on how the arrangement would be structured. At the time when it was first reported by TOI, there were also some protests in Mauritius against handing over the islands to India.
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