The Centre will not relent to FII pressure for withdrawing tax demands worth ₹40,000 crore towards minimum alternate tax (MAT), a top Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.

“The total demand is around ₹40,000 crore. We will not yield to the FII demand for tax waiver,” he said.

A large number of such investors have been asked to pay MAT for untaxed capital gains earned by them, but they have protested these tax notices and demands saying they were exempt from long-term capital gains tax and had never been subjected to MAT in previous years. The revenue department had sent notices to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) demanding 20 per cent MAT on capital gains earned by them till March 31, 2015.

The FIIs had then approached the Authority for Advanced Rulings (AAR), which had ruled in favour of the tax department.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that India was not a tax haven and legitimate dues from foreign investors would be pursued.

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