Bilateral deals with 80 nations to be available online; DEA writes to Indian embassies to generate awareness.
The finance ministry has decided to help Indians investing abroad, apprising them about bilateral agreements protecting their rights. The department of economic affairs will upload 80 Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreements (BIPAs) on its website to facilitate the move.
A senior finance ministry official told Business Standard that the department had written to ambassadors of the 80 countries to provide a link to the finance ministry website so that those having business interests abroad had a first-hand reference of their rights in the country they are operating in.
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The official said now that the BIPAs will be readily available in public domain, those willing to invest abroad can analyse the advantages that they can get in the respective countries. “This will certainly help those encountering problems related to their investments in other countries.”
India has trade agreements with the UK, Russian Federation, Germany, Malaysia, Switzerland, Netherland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, France, Mauritius, Iceland and Saudi Arabia, among others. BIPA outlines the provisions for settlement of disputes between an investor and a host state.
Further, the agreements outline norms for transfer of investment capital and returns. According to the Indo-Mauritius BIPA, for example, both countries will allow free transfer of investment funds from an investor, without unreasonable delay and bias.
Funds may include capital and additional capital amount used to maintain and increase investments, net operating profits, including dividends and interest in proportion to their shareholdings, repayments of any loan including interest thereon, relating to the investment; payment of royalties and services fees relating to the investment and proceeds from sales of their shares.
All transfers are required to be effected without unreasonable delay in any freely convertible currency at the market rate of exchange prevailing on the date of transfer. Similar provisions associated with business activities in the contracting countries have also been outlined in the BIPAs.
