Indian expatriates question minister on taxes, voting rights and air routes

Community leaders meet minister for overseas affairs to voice concern over new law which will mean Indians will face income tax regardless of where they live.

ABU DHABI // Indian community leaders met their minister for overseas affairs yesterday to voice concerns about new tax laws in their native country, voting rights for expatriates and more direct air service to smaller Indian cities. The minister, Vayalar Ravi, in the capital to the meet Saqr Ghobash, the UAE Minister of Labour, said the countries were working towards "a memorandum of understanding that will offer greater protection to the large number of Indian workers here".

Mr Ravi answered queries from more than 100 people during a visit to the India Social & Cultural Centre yesterday evening. He said he had visited Mangalore, the site of the Air India Express aircraft crash that killed 158 people on Saturday. The aircraft was travelling from Dubai, and most of the dead were UAE residents. India's introduction of a new tax law in which Indians, regardless of where they live, will face income tax was a major concern raised by many of those gathered. Mr Ravi said that he would talk to ministers in parliament to support an exemption for expatriate Indians.

Another concern raised was that non-resident Indians are not allowed to vote through absentee ballots, which some said had been a source of frustration. Many residents here were unable to travel to India to cast votes during the general elections in 2009, they said. Mr Ravi said that the constitution stipulated that a person had to reside in India for at least six months to be eligible but added that he would push a bill allowing absentee voting.

On direct flights from the UAE to India, however, Mr Ravi was firm. "If you can persuade some airlines to fly directly from every city here to there, then good," he said. "Because I cannot offer you flights." He said the complaints of workers had prompted his department to release several announcements in India warning blue-collar workers of unscrupulous hiring agents. @Email:[e-mail]