Bangladesh and India are close to sign a tax treaty

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India and Bangladesh are close to signing three agreements, including a protocol to amend the avoidance of double taxation treaty, which is expected to give a major boost to bilateral trade, said officials at the Indian foreign ministry yesterday.
The most important of the three agreements is the Double Taxation Avoidance Taxation Convention protocol, which will amend the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. The agreement has been in place since 1991.
Considerable progress have been done on the three deals since last Tuesday's meeting of the Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) here, where Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes and his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai led their respective delegations.
At the meeting, Mathai conveyed India's willingness to see early signing of the three agreements.
New Delhi has taken a positive view of the trajectory the India-Bangladesh relations has taken of late, including a flurry of meetings on infrastructure in June to examine infrastructures at land customs stations and the proposed Border Haats.
A meeting to review the line of credit was held last month in New Delhi with the purpose of fast-tracking implementation of the projects. Shipping secretaries of the two countries decided to renew the protocol on inland water transit and trade by a further two years.
The two sides are cooperating in facilitating the return of mortal remains of the freedom fighters of 1971. Recently, a delegation from Bangladesh was in India to discuss modalities with concerned ministries and state governments.
The joint technical committee, set up to explore the possibility of electricity trade between Bangladesh and India and to recommend associate transmission systems on both sides of the border, met recently.
India regards the outcome of these meetings and the sustained engagement between the two sides on substantive and specific issues of mutual concerns as having added a momentum to the bilateral relations.