NEW DELHI: Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have pleaded for relaxation in resident and non-resident status of Indians staying abroad in such a manner that the flow of their investment to India is not impeded.

In a memorandum presented to finance minister Yashwant Sinha here Thursday the NRI welfare society of India said a thorough examination of the various definitions related to NRIs stay in India is called for as this impedes the NRI investment flows in.

This follows a spate of seminars and discussions organized in the past few days by the society.

The memorandum proposed if an individual has been non-resident of India for consecutive seven years and now invests in India the person should be exempt from paying tax on his foreign income for next eight years except income from business or profession earned in India.

He should also be exempted from declaring his worldwide assets during this period.

As various requirements by Reserve Bank of India for NRIs to establish a corporate identity in India were cumbersome the memorandum said and pleaded for simplifying them altogether for enabling NRIs to feel free to invest.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 8, 1991