The Indian and Norwegian Ministries of Finance met on October 1st in New Delhi. Meetings between the two ministries on high official level are held annually to strengthen bilateral cooperation on issues of common interest.
Norway and India have for some time worked to renegotiate a bilateral tax agreement to prevent double taxation for Norwegian and Indian citizens. This agreement is planned to be signed before the end of October.
India is an important country for Norwegian investments. The Norwegian Pension Fund has invested around 2 billion dollars in India since 2008, making the share of equities in India 1 per cent of the total fund portfolio.
Climate change and Green Investment was discussed during the talks. The importance of including Financial Departments in the international climate negotiations was agreed to by both ministries.
As there is an international effort to limit the impact of tax havens and illegal capital flows, the exchange of information between countries are important. Each year billions of dollars go out of India illegally. Therefore close cooperation between countries would help avoid such incidents.
The next meeting between the two ministries will be held in Oslo next year.