(Image source from: qz.com)

India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to announce Indian budget 2019 on July 5 and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are expecting a host of reforms that would ease the rules for them to conduct business in India and increase their involvement in helping boost India’s economy.

A massive show of support by NRIs was seen as to a certain extent responsible for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resounding victory in recent elections which got him a second five-year term in office.

“I would expect that the outreach towards NRIs will continue,” Reshmi Khurana, Managing Director and Head of South East Asia at Kroll was quoted by Connected to India.

Indians abroad have been demanding for relieving of norms governing their investments in gold, real estate, fixed income. They also urge the Modi government to be less stringent with taxes on their investments. Though their wishes may get fulfilled to some extent, with the economy still in recovery mode, Sitharaman may not adopt a stance that was too accommodative to Indians living abroad.

One of the key points of the 2018 Budget that impacted NRIs was the introduction of a 10 percent long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax imposed on profit above INR 1 lakh which will, in all probability, continue this year.

Whether through bank accounts, real estate investments, remittances or foreign portfolio investments, most Indians abroad have a portion of their assets and wealth in India.

Moreover, India has been the world’s largest recipient of remittances from the diaspora for the last three years, reaching a whopping USD 79 billion last year.

By Sowmya Sangam