Indian PM to embark on Canada visit on Friday

New Delhi, June 24 (PTI) Prime Minister of India
Manmohan Singh leaves Friday on a three-day visit to Canada
for attending the G-20 Summit which will review the current
status of the global economic recovery and discuss a tax to
fund future bail out of banks, a proposal India is opposed to.
Singh, who will head a high-power Indian delegation to
the two-day summit in Toronto on June 26 and 27, is expected
to place on record India's opposition to such a banking
transaction levy on the ground that Indian banks did well
during the 2008 financial crisis sparked by weak regulation
norms in developed countries.
Notwithstanding the rejection of the tax idea at the
G-20 finance ministers meeting in Busan in Seoul earlier this
month, countries like the US, France and Germany, favour such
a levy.
They are expected to pursue their demand in Toronto
while the new British government has announced imposition of a
banking levy in its first budget.
Besides India, countries like hosts Canada, Japan and
Brazil have their reservations on such tax-funded bailouts.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who attended the
Busan meet, said that the G-20 communique was a compromise
because a section of the countries felt that there was no no
need of having any such taxation.
"If there are well-placed regulations that can take
care of this problem the health of the banks can be
protected," he said. (MORE) PTI