With Parliament putting the ghost of retrospective tax to rest on August 9, India can now bring out the 70-odd Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPA), mothballed since 2017, for renewal. Several law firms representing interests of companies abroad hope this will happen soon.

       The hope is not misplaced even though some new complications have emerged in the years since Parliament passed the retrospective tax in 2012. One of those is reconciling definitions of investment under BIPA or Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), to use their official name in India, to include ...