Panel's recommendation on retrospective tax doable: Pilot

Calling for a stable tax policy to boost foreign investments, Minister of Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot today said Damodaran panel's suggestions like doing away with retrospective taxation was "fairly doable"

"Damodaran panel has given its report to help improve India's investment climate. We have examined the report and think there are a few fairly doable things." Pilot said. One of those things, the Minister said, is "not having retrospective taxation, not going back and changing things that happened years or decades ago because no investments will happen unless you give a stable tax policy regime."

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He was speaking at the '40th National Management Convention' organised by All India Management Association (AIMA).Earlier this month, the government appointed panel had submitted its report suggesting ways that would make doing business in India favourable.

Among its many recommendations, the panel had opposed having retrospective taxation laws, terming them as a "significant disincentives" for entities wishing to do business in India. The issue of retrospective taxation created a major controversy after UK-based global telecom giant Vodafone was asked to pay out a significant amount as taxes through a retrospective amendment to taxation laws pursuant to a Supreme Court order rejecting the government's tax demand from the company.

Pilot also said the "impact of the regulations must be studied and we must be able to know the positiveness of having them". He welcomed the panel's recommendation regarding making the regulatory environment easier for micro, small and medium enterprises.