Skip to main content

Overseas investors buying rupee bonds will get tax exemption on interest income: CBDT

Overseas investors buying rupee bonds issued by Indian entities will not need to pay tax on their interest income, the government said on Monday, as it attempts to encourage capital inflows and support the rupee. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex direct tax body, said in a statement that interest payable to a nonresident or a foreign company regarding offshore rupee bonds issued from Monday till 31 March 2019 will be exempt from tax, and hence, no tax will be deducted on interest payment at source. The CBDT statement said legislative changes will be proposed in due course.
NTPC Ltd and Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd have sold rupee bonds to raise funds from abroad. It helps the borrower avoid currency risks which are borne by the investor. The ongoing rupee depreciation has hurt industries using high quantities of imported raw materials. The domestic price of auto fuel, which is linked to international dollar price of the commodity, has also risen in recent months. CBDT said finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced “a multi-pronged strategy to contain the current account deficit (CAD) and augment the foreign exchange inflow” after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s review of the state of economy last Friday.
 
“In this background, lowcost foreign borrowings through off-shore rupee denominated bond have been further incentivised to increase the foreign exchange inflow,” said the policy making body. The domestic currency has weakened by 11.57% against the dollar since April. It ended trading on Monday at 72.51 against the dollar, plunging 67 paise from the previous close of 71.84. Rupee bonds were allowed 5% concessional tax on interest payment in 2017 for the period of 1 April 2016 to 1 July 2020.


The Mint, 18th September 2018

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...