In order to find out the current status of the Social Security agreement between India and The Netherlands, Mr Vinod Gupta, a former resident of The Netherlands and at present resident of New Delhi had a meeting with Mr. G. Guracharan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs on 20^th October, 2006.

After the meeting he sent an e-mail to me. Here is a short account of his meeting which will give you some information about the present status of the agreement.

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Dear Wahid,

Finally, I was able to force a personal rendezvous and spent more than half an hour of undisturbed meeting in his beautiful office on the 9th floor of Akbar Bhawan (originally known as Akbar Hotel-an ITDC entity).

The status of the treaty is as following:

The Agreement is based on Indo-Belgium model. The passage of Belgium Agreement is likely to be announced on Belgian PM's visit to India in November''06.


The Dutch Agreement is addressed to Ministry of Justice, at The Hague through the office of Indian Embassy. Their response is awaited by Indian authorities. Typically, the response is likely to result in a meeting to iron out any traces of differences. Mr. Gurucharan does not anticipate any serious discrepancy other than technicalities such as language. etc. Final draft of the Agreement would emerge on the second meeting, which would then be sent to respective parliaments (a mere formality) for ratification.

The Agreement is to address 3 main points:

1. Export of Pension to the Pensioners living in India. As there is a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between NL & India, pension amount would be passed on Gross to recipients in India. This applies to both State as well as private Pension Funds (I have some doubt about the inclusion of later explicitly. Since you are provided with a copy of such Agreement, kindly make sure that Private Pension Funds are mentioned)
    
2. Above to be applied to Dutch persons going back to NL after having served in India.
    
3. Last but not least is about the modality to check on the status of Recipients in India with regard to their mortality, address, bank details etc. It has been proposed by India that Indian Banks would issue Annual Status Report of all Recipients.

Mr. Gurucharan is of the opinion that whole of the exercise is not likely to take more than 6 months. The delay so far had been due to passing the buck on to diverse departments in Indian Bureaucracy. Strangely, many departments are now vying with each other to claim the credit. The second hurdle was the Dutch mindset, that the benefit of such Agreement would mainly accrue to India- based Recipients.


The meeting was conducted in most amicable atmosphere. My impression of Mr. Gurucharan is somebody who means business and thus likely to deliver.


Congratulations, of developing the desired rapport with MOIA at last.

Best Regards,
Vinod
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Photo's by curtsey of the PMO.