778-Som-Lalit Institute Of Business Management - Gujarat ...

investment from Qatar in crude storage facility being developed by Indian Oil
Corporation. From our side, we have indicated interest in setting up a petrochemical
and a fertilizer plant in Qatar but Qatar has indicated that these projects can only be
considered after an embargo is lifted over further allocation of gas.
A large number of Indian companies such as L&T, Dodsal, Punj Lloyd, Voltas,
Simplex, Wipro, Aptech, Satyam Mahendra, NIIT etc have set up offices in Qatar and
have secured major contracts/ business. The Indian community is estimated to be in
the range of 500,000. Indian professionals constitute an important component. There
are eight Indian schools following the CBSE syllabus. The annual remittance from
Qatar is estimated to be over US$ 1 billion. Air India, Indian, Jet Airways and Qatar
Airways operate direct flights between India and Qatar. Qatar Airways has been
continuously increasing its services to India and has 86 weekly flights to India now.
Indian professionals and businessmen constitute a small but important component of
the Indian community in Qatar. The Indian Business and Professionals Network
(IBPN), the Institution of Engineers (India), Indian Medical Association and the
Institute of Chartered Accountants maintain active chapters in Qatar with an
expanding membership and on-going activities. There are a number of exchange
houses run by involving Indian banks, which channelize remittances to India. The
three major exchange houses involving Indian banks are Eastern Exchange (Canara
Bank), Trust Exchange (State Bank of India) and National Exchange (Syndicate
Bank). India is a major buyer of ethylene, propylene, ammonia, urea and
polyethylene from Qatar. However, India has not been a major customer for Qatari
crude oil / products.
It is evident that economic relations between India and Qatar are strong and are
rapidly expanding and diversifying. There is a shared desire on both sides to further
deepen these relations.
As there are very less taxes nowadays Qatar is known as the Tax Haven. This factor
has attracted investment from number of companies. There are also some strict
rules to start up a business like to join hand with any Qatari firm doing similar
business or interested in it. But the benefits overweigh the drawbacks.
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