Holcim likely to seek exemption under India-Mauritius tax agreement

The India-Mauritius treaty was designed to attract foreign investments in the early 1990s when India's foreign exchange reserves were alarmingly low

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The transaction will be one of the biggest M&A transactions in the Indian cement sector and the tax department will go through the deal with a microscope for any tax liability

Dev Chatterjee Mumbai

4 min read Last Updated : May 02 2022 | 06:10 AM IST

Mauritius-based Holderind Investments, which holds a 63 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements, can claim capital gains exemption under the India-Mauritius tax treaty when it sells the stake in the Indian company in the coming weeks, according to tax experts.

Holcim is currently in talks with several Indian tax experts to ensure that its stake sale in Ambuja Cements does not get embroiled in a tax dispute like Vodafone of the UK when it acquired its India business from Hutchison and had to face litigation from the Indian tax department for over a decade. The talks with the tax department are important as buyers usually seek a no-objection certificate on withholding tax.

Tax experts said as Holcim’s stake in the Indian company