South African High Commissioner to India Anil Sooklal on Monday said that at no stage South Africa or any member of the BRICS spoke out the dedollarisation, and it has become a catchphras.
Sooklal was speaking at Network18's Reforms Reloaded summit in New Delhi and Ambassador of Iceland to India Benedikt Höskuldsson was also present along with him on the stage.
Sookla said that the expansion of BRICS wasn't well received by the global North and it was the western media that started the debate that BRICS has dedollarisation on its agenda.
He said that what we were looking to deepen trade in local currency and looking at alternative payment platforms, specially after the unilateral sanctions and freezing of Russian funds by the West. We thought this could happen to anyone of us, so we need to look at our own local financial systems, local trade and local currency. Unfortunately, this was taken out of context
Additionally, he said that India is an important member of BRICS community and the GST reforms taken are important and South Africa welcomes this.
He then said that India doesn't have easy trading environment and consist of many layers of regulations, compliances, tax and simplifying this will help the trade.
Meanwhile, Ambassador of Iceland Höskuldsson said that GST reforms are really important as it unifies India’s market which will help in the growth of the inter state economy.
The reforms are very important for investors as the the taxes will be more transparent and it will easier for companies to operate.
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