Not routing black money into India: Mauritius

Manoj Rammohan Paris, Feb 3 (PTI) Mauritius on Thursday said it has put in place all necessary checks against flow of black money and
illicit funds were not being routed through it into India.
Facing allegations of being a facilitator for flow of
black money stashed abroad by Indians back into India, the
island nation said the whole criticism was only a matter of
perception and had no truth in it.
"I completely disagree with the criticism that black
money is routed through our country into India. The whole
criticism is just a matter of perception," Mauritius Vice
Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Economic
Development Pravind Kumar Jugnauth told PTI here.
He made the comments in reply to queries related to the
widespread criticism that black money was being routed through
Mauritius into India, on the sidelines of the global congress
on combating counterfeiting and piracy here.
There have been reports that Indians could be using
Mauritius as a route for bringing back black money into India,
while taking advantage of low and friendly tax regime in the
island nation located in the southwest Indian ocean.
"We have a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with
India and it is doing well ... I believe that about 44 per
cent of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India is routed
through Mauritius. Mechanisms are in place (to check the issue
of black money)," Jugnauth said.
"We (Mauritius) have the framework to facilitate
investments (into India) and through (our country) Indians can
also make investments in Africa," he added.
When asked whether India is right now talking to
Mauritius on any particular aspect of checking the black money
flow, he said, "We always keep talking to each other..."
A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), the global agency working on
implementation of international standards on taxation and
other matters, last month named Mauritius among countries
where laws do not meet global standards.
As per OECD, "there are missing elements in the legal
framework (of Mauritius) such as accounting information on
some of the offshore companies.
"The assessment of the practice in Mauritius shows that
there is room for improvement, in particular as regards the
access to bank information by the tax authorities," it said.
OECD, in its review of Mauritius, also took note of
reports expressing concern over Indian taxpayers using
Mauritian business entities to round-trip profits. It,
however, noted that Mauritius' Financial Services Commissions
has put in place preventive measures and sanctions.