MANOJa

December 7, 2011


Out of nearly $31,450 million invested abroad by Indian corporations in the last three years, capital invested in real estate and financial instruments was $12,703 million,almost 40% of the total outbound investments,statistics released by the finance ministry reveal.

After domestic revenue intelligence agencies enhanced their surveillance on the flight of capital to British Virgin Islands,Cayman Island,Hong Kong and Channel Island,the most favoured destinations in the past three years are Singapore,Mauritius and Netherlands.Most of these jurisdictions are notified by the government as special territories and efforts are being made to negotiate exclusive pacts to facilitate exchange of information on tax evaders,including with Singapore and Mauritius.

After the trail of several money-laundering cases ended in Hong Kong and Netherlands,the government notified Hong Kong as a specified territory in April last year.Earlier,the government had notified nine other jurisdictions to facilitate information that would help track cases of money-laundering and tax evasion.The notification enabled India to enter into a double taxation avoidance agreement with all of them.The nine other specified territories included Bermuda,British Virgin Island,Cayman Island,Gibraltar (all British overseas territories).