INDIA OFFERS $500 MN CREDIT TO MAURITIUS, 5 PACTS SIGNED

India offered $ 500 million concessional line of credit to Mauritius for key infrastructure projects as the two nations signed five pacts, including on ocean economy, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the strategic Indian Ocean island nation.
Mauritius, in turn, offered India cooperation on information exchange on taxation.
The India-Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) is being revised amid concerns that Mauritius is being used for round-tripping of funds into India even though that country has always maintained that there have been no concrete evidence of any such misuse.
Traditionally, Mauritius has been one of the biggest sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India. The five pacts signed included a MoU between the two countries in the field of ‘Ocean Economy’ which will provide an extensive framework for cooperation, a novel and critical area of sustainable development in the Indian Ocean Region.
The other agreements signed were a MoU for the improvement in sea and air transportation facilities at Agalega Island of Mauritius, MoU on cooperation in the field of traditional system of medicine and homoeopathy, programme for cultural cooperation between 2015-18 and a pact on import of fresh mango from India.