India, US continue talks on Social Security pact

Washington/New Delhi: Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal said that India would continue to engage with the US on the proposed social security or totalisation pact and it would take time. The proposed agreement seeks to do away with the requirement for an expatriate in either country to pay for social security schemes of the host country.

“The issue should have been resolved earlier when the dimensions were manageable. Now, the dimension of the money collected by the (US) Treasury is so large that for any government, this will be a major decision,” he told reporters in Washington. “When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power in 2014, the country held discussions with the US on the matter. The subject that has festered far too long and is not going to resolve overnight. So, we will continue to have dialogue with the US…It’s going to take time, we recognise that,” Goyal said.

He noted that the President Joe Biden administration has sent some “very” detailed questionnaires to India about the social security systems in India, which have all been responded to. “The social security coverage details that we have shared with them, cover about 930 million people in India, more than the required threshold. So we are eligible for a dialogue and resolution of totalisation and bringing in Social Security Agreement,” he said.