India, Belgium amend bilateral tax treaty

India and Belgium today signed an agreement amending the bilateral tax treaty to curb evasion and also enable mutual assistance in tax collection.
India and Belgium have signed a protocol amending the existing agreement and protocol between the two countries for avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, a finance ministry statement said.
"The protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of exchange of tax related information. This in turn will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two countries and will also enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes," it said.

The protocol was signed by CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra and Belgium Ambassador to India Jan Luykx.
Fighting the menace of black money stashed in offshore accounts has been a key priority area for the government and to this effect India has either signed or amended tax treaties with various jurisdictions.
During the financial year 2016-17, tax treaties have been amended for the exchange of information with Switzerland, Mauritius, Cyprus, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Singapore and Austria.