New Delhi: India and Nepal will sign a new agreement for avoiding double taxation between the two countries when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Kathmandu on Sunday. The treaty will replace the 1987 accord.
Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai is already in Kathmandu from Saturday ahead of the agreement signing to prepare for the meeting Mukherjee will have with his Nepalese counterpart, Barsha Man Pun.
"My current visit is to prepare for the visit of our finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who will be arriving in Kathmandu tomorrow (Sunday). The Indian finance minister and the Nepalese counterpart are to sign the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which will replace the old agreement signed in 1987," Mathai said on his arrival in Kathmandu.
"It is a great pleasure for me to be in your country. This is only my first visit to Kathmandu after assuming charge as foreign secretary of India. I will be accompanying the Indian finance minister in his meetings with the leaders of Nepal," he said.
Mathai will be meeting Nepal's Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire to review progress in the implementation of the agenda agreed upon during the recent visit of Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to India, and of ways to expand and strengthen our bilateral ties.
"The two prime ministers met again in the Maldives (on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit) and agreed that action should be taken to take forward bilateral cooperation," he said.
He added that India has an abiding interest in the "peace, stability and prosperity" of Nepal, and this motivates India's wish to expand the cooperation between the two nations.
"I do hope to make more visits to this country and to see more of it in the future."
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