Nepal, B'desh start consultation on DTAA

Nepal has commenced pre-negotiation consultations on Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Bangladesh, eyeing to attract more investment from the second largest South Asian trading partner by laying down a more lucrative investment regime between the two countries.
A four-member team of officials under the leadership of Tanka Mani Sharma, director general of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) left for Bangladesh on Friday to have a pre-negotiation consultation with the Bangladeshi officials, a source at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) told Republica.
The team has been entrusted to pave the way for starting the final negotiations on text of DTAA. "The officials from two countries will sit for final negotiation after some time based on the results of this consultation," the source said.
According to the source, the government has almost finalized the text of DTAA to be signed with Bangladesh. Two countries had already shared the text of DTAA earlier. "So, this consultation meeting will discuss on the shared DTAA text," said the source.
The government plans to sign DTAA with Bangladesh in the near future in order to free the investors and traders from Nepal and Bangladesh from the need of paying taxes in both the countries. With it, the officials believe Nepal would receive more foreign investment from Bangladesh.
As of 2010/11, Nepal has received just Rs 520 million of investment from Bangladesh. Statistics of the Department of Industry (DoI) show a total of 26 Bangladeshi joint ventures operating in Nepal which are providing jobs to 4,166 people.
Moreover, Bangladesh is one of the few countries with which Nepal has trade surplus.
According to the Trade and Export Promotion Center (TEPC), Nepal exported goods worth Rs 2.57 billion to Bangladesh and imported goods worth Rs 1.50 billion, posting a trade surplus of just over Rs 1 billion in 2011/12.