India sees taxation level cooperation among BRICS countries: Arun Jaitley

MUMBAI: With the annual BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Goa a couple of days ahead, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Thursday the government was looking for taxation-level cooperation among the members.

"We (BRICS) are learning from experience of each other. Seeing customer and taxation level cooperation among BRICS countries," Jaitley said in his address at a BRICS seminar.

"BRICS is also discussing rating agency and research institution. It is discussing improving business environment. The contingency reserves agreement is in place," he added.

Jaitley said that BRICS together represents 40 per cent of the world population and a large part of global GDP.

"New Development Bank is an example of BRICS cooperation. It has initiated a large number of projects in a short time," he added.

On the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), the Finance Minister said India probably has the most open FDI policy with 90 per cent of it coming through the automatic route.

"There were several sectors where sectoral limits existed or where there was no FDI. We have now opened up these sectors," Jaitley said.

But public investment still has an important role to play in India, he added.