India minister vows to improve company tax regime

New Delhi

INDIAN Finance Minister Arun Jaitley struck a conciliatory tone towards investors on Friday, promising to tax corporate profits at competitive rates and saying the government would do all in its power to implement a new national sales tax on time.

Foreign portfolio investors have complained about surprise tax claims and, during a news conference to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first year in power, Mr Jaitley said that a judicial resolution was in the works.

Mr Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had accused the previous Congress-led government of "tax terrorism". But having pledged to overhaul the tax regime, Mr Modi's pro-business government was caught flat-footed in a row with foreign portfolio investors over demands they pay minimum alternate tax, for which they had not…