‘Cutting red tape in India key to swiss investments’: Helene Budliger Artieda

Bern: A good regulatory framework and cut in red tape in India is important to attract Swiss investments, Switzerland’s state secretary for economic affairs Helene Budliger Artieda has said.

She also ruled out any impact of the withdrawal of most favoured nation treatment for India by Switzerland under the bilateral tax treaty on investment flows under the trade agreement with European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

“We need to have the best framework conditions (for the $100 billion commitment on investment) and this was part of the business roundtable meeting in the presence of minister Goyal. It will be important that red tape be cut as much as possible,” she said.

Even in Switzerland, companies complain about too much red tape, she added.

“It will be very important that India creates a good framework for Swiss investments to come in,” she told reporters after her meeting with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday.

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India and the EFTA, which includes Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, signed a free trade agreement on March 10, 2024, which is expected to come into force in a few months. It provides for an investment commitment of $100 billion in 15 years from the grouping in lieu of customs duty concessions. Goyal is on a four-day visit to Switzerland and Sweden.On the issue of the Swiss government suspending the MFN clause in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between India and Switzerland, Artieda said there has been some misunderstanding on this.”I think it’s important to know that both India and Switzerland share a double taxation treaty and that treaty is valid and that means there will not be any issue,” she said.

In a statement in December 2024, the Swiss government announced the suspension of the MFN clause in the DTAA between India and Switzerland, potentially impacting Swiss investments in India and leading to higher taxes on Indian companies operating in the European nation.

She noted that the trade agreement will help increase exports of Swiss watches and chocolates to India as companies will have the advantage of preferred access.

New Delhi is also in talks with the European Union for a comprehensive free trade agreement.

(The correspondent is in Switzerland at the invitation of the ministry of commerce and industry.)

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