India US Strategic and Economic Partnership - Hillary-Pranab Meet
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.UNION Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that India gives high importance to India-US Strategic and Economic Partnership. He was speaking on the occasion when an official US delegation led by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton called on him, yesterday. He stated that India is carrying its reforms agenda further by making major change in the tax sector - involving both direct and indirect taxes. Mukherjee said that in the field of direct taxes, efforts are on to make Direct Tax Code (DTC) effective w.e.f. 1st April, 2012. In field of indirect taxes, efforts are also on to build a consensus among all the stakeholders including state governments to make Goods and Services Tax (GST) effective at the earliest. He said that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are expected to finalize the guidelines of Infrastructure Debt Fund soon, which would help in expediting investment, by the US companies in India.
Speaking on the occasion, US Secretary of State Hillary hoped that the relationship between India and US in the field of trade, infrastructure investment, business, defence and strategic matters would be further strengthened. She said that US India have excellent working relationship especially in field of economic and financial partnership. She said that India can play a major role in enhancing regional economic cooperation and optimizing the large potential available in this region. She specifically mentioned that India can play a major role in the economic development of Afghanistan.
The US delegation consisted of Robert O' Blake, Asstt. Secretary, Daniel B. Poneman, Deputy Secretary, Energy, Elizabeth Littlefield, Head of Overseas Private Investment Corporation among others. The Indian delegation included among others Meera Shankar, India's Ambassador to US, R.S. Gujral, Revenue Secretary and Dr. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor.