India to delay anti-tax avoidance rules for foreign investors

MUMBAI: India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday the government would delay the implementation of planned General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) by two years, while saying it would make no distinctions between foreign direct investments and foreign portfolio investments.

Earlier, Jaitley set the country's fiscal deficit target for the 2015/16 fiscal year at 3.9 percent of gross domestic product and said it would reduce the target gradually to 3 percent by 2017/18, one year later than previously expected.

Jaitley also said the government expected to implement the goods and services tax by April 2016.