US govt, firms welcomed economic reforms by India: Minister Sitharaman

"The businesses with whom we have been interacting have also welcomed that decision," she said.

"Many of them (businesses) thought it was bold and even though it took some time to come. We have also explained that they were legal compulsions before which we had to wait because some of the litigations which were going on had to come to a logical conclusion," Sitharaman was quoted as saying by a news agency.

In August, the Indian parliament passed a bill to scrap a tax rule that gave the tax department power to go 50 years back and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India. The bill provides for the government to refund the retro tax to companies provided all legal challenges are withdrawn.

Responding to a question on a trade deal with the US, Sitharaman said her focus was on investment incentivising agreement for which there is time till December.

"We have spoken about it. The two countries would like to carry on the negotiation and conclude at the earliest," she said.

"But on the larger issue of the trade itself is something which commerce (ministry) is working together with the (American) counterpart. So, I have not engaged in depth into that," Sitharaman said.

From Washington, Sitharaman went to New York for an interactive session with the business community. She started her week-long trip from Boston on October 11. She participated in the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

On the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank discussions, Sitharaman had more than 25 bilateral meetings, the most significant of which was the India-US Economic and Financial Partnership. That meeting was co-chaired by Sitharaman and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen.

The discussions touched on key areas of economic recovery from the pandemic to macro economic outlook; cooperation on global economic matters; climate finance support to infrastructure funding and combating of financing of terrorism.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)