<div>India plans to address some pending tax disputes in the next few days, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, but did not give details or say whether the cases in question included disputes with foreign companies that have spooked investors.</div><div> </div><div><div>Jaitley said while a number of tax disputes have been "put to rest" since the BJP government took office in May last year, others are being resolved now.</div><div> </div><div>"Now, a number of them have been put to rest and we are trying over the next few days itself so that many others can be put to sleep either by a judicial resolution or an executive resolution," he said while addressing the India Economic Convention in New Delhi.</div></div><div> </div><div>Earlier this month, the finance ministry decided not to press claims for a Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) against foreign portfolio investors. India remains locked in major back-tax battles with telecoms group Vodafone and Cairn Energy.</div><div> </div><div>Jaitley said last week that the government was trying to resolve pending tax cases, many of them outside the courts.</div><div> </div><div><div>Stating that the system of allocation of natural resources has been rationalised and the controversies put to rest, Jaitley said there are many other economic reforms in the pipeline.</div><div> </div><div>While the GST Bill is stuck because of political reasons, the government is trying to put on track a bankruptcy code, dispute resolution in major contracts, expeditious arbitration procedures and a public procurement law, he said.</div><div> </div><div>"In a situation where there is turmoil almost by the day as far as global markets are concerned, we are trying to make the fundamentals of our own economy strong so our ability to resist these changes can substantially improve," he said.</div><div> </div><div>The Finance Minister impressed upon the need to attract more investments for the manufacturing sector.</div><div> </div><div>"Without investment, there is going to be no additional economic activity," he said, terming improving ease of doing business and resolution of tax disputes as "work in progress".</div><div> </div><div>(Agencies)</div></div>
