The interests of Mauritius have been preserved. So have those of India. This is what the Indian High Commissioner told ION News during an interview on the newly renegotiated Double Tax Avoidance Treaty (DTAT) linking the two countries. Anup Mudgal stresses the fact that India is about to renegotiate its whole web of tax treaties with other countries, starting with the India-Singapore treaty which has a specific clause linking its fate to the India-Mauritius DTAT. Once India moves towards a source-based taxation approach, the High Commissioner believes that Mauritius will have an advantage over other jurisdictions. Since it will be both “low cost and more competitive”.

Anup Mudgal also discussed the rationale that lead Mauritius and India to agree upon the projects to be financed from the 350 million USD (Rs 12,7 billion) of grant received. He reveals that Mauritius chose which priority projects were to be financed and as such, it was not India’s role to have a say in what the partner country views as priority investment fields. The High Commissioner also denies that the Indian aid comes with “strings attached” since he explains that Mauritius will fully own and control the procurement process leading to the appointment of Indian firms for the construction of part of Heritage City, the Mauritius International Finance Centre and the new light rail system renamed Metro Express.

After having spent two and a half years in Mauritius, Anup Mudgal is heading back to Delhi in less than a month. Having hands-on experience of the Indo-Mauritian relationship, the diplomat believes that it is a “unique” one in that both countries do try to uphold their mutual interests whenever they discuss on a wide range of matters.

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