PM rules out imposition of Tobin tax

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today ruled out imposition of Tobin tax on capital inflows

RELATED ARTICLES

in the country, saying the situation in India has not not reached a problem stage.

"Well the Tobin tax has merit in particular situations but as far as India is concerned we have not reached a stage where capital flows have become a problem.

"I think if capital inflows into our country both by way of direct investment and by way of portfolio investment have been at reasonable levels, we don't face situations of the kind which would require an imposition of Tobin tax," he said in reply to a question on his views on the tax.

There has been a talk among economists on a Tobin-like tax--a levy on all spot conversions of one currency into another--to prevent fluctuations in the market due to excessive capital inflows into the country.

Foreign Institutional investors have been pumping in money into the Indian stock markets, adding to the capital inflows into the country. The inflows up to June this year were a little over Rs 31,000 crore.

Since the country is battling double digit inflation, there is a feeling in certain quarters that funds coming from overseas are adding to the pressure.

He also said that the government was not into contemplating a legislation in the area of corporate social responsibility.

"There is now a lot of discussion on corporate governance. I think good corporate houses are looking at what they can do in non-traditional areas of providing social services, education, health facilities for their employees.

"I think that it is a corporate responsibility, which has to be shouldered by the corporate sector on its own. We are not contemplating any legislation in that area," the Prime Minister said

Post new comment

E-mail ID will not be published
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.

FC NEWSLETTER

Stay informed on our latest news!

EDITORIAL OF THE DAY

  • Retail investors need to be drawn to bond trading

    A country requires both a healthy capital market and a liquid debt market for vibrant economic growth. India has had the first for a long time.

INTERVIEWS

GV Nageswara Rao

MD & CEO, IDBI Federal Life

Timothy Moe

Goldman Sachs

Chander Mohan Sethi

CMD, Reckitt Benckiser India

COLUMNIST

Urs Schöttli

Japan’s living national treasures

While the world is fascinated by the economic “miracles” in ...

Robert Clements

Cherish good times and accept bad ones

Initially, I was angry and confused, I was even repentant…,” ...

Bubbles Sabharwal

Mothers just see things differently; they can’t help it

Before we begin on mothers, I have to share this ...