India urges UK to change tax rules for its professionals

INDIA has urged the British government to consider improved tax norms for the benefit of the Indian professionals who visit the UK. 

Indian high commissioner to the UK Ruchi Ghanashyam urged the UK home secretary Sajid Javid to look into some of the norms around compulsory tax contributions required from Indians who visit the UK only for a short period.   

Speaking at the Conservative Friends of India (CFIN) annual dinner in London on Wednesday (8), Ghanashyam said the national insurance (NI) exemption which for Indian citizens is 52 weeks.

The minimum time-period of NI contribution to gain entitlement to a state pension is 10 years.

Thus an Indian professional on a limited-period intra-company transfer (ICT) visa is unable to take advantage of NI. This means forfeiting the entire sum paid in. 

NI is a kind of contributory tax paid by the British nationals which eventually guarantees access to a state-funded pension. 

There is an increase in the number of Indian firms functioning in the UK over the previous year to 842 in 2019, according to the latest data from Grant Thornton's 'India Meet Britain Tracker 2019'.