In a bid to woo foreign investment, the government on Friday said friendly economic policies would be continued to enable the country to move on to higher growth of 6.5-7 per cent this fiscal.

"The economy is slated to grow by 6.5-7 per cent or even more. There is stability in policies and they are irreversible. We will continue to go ahead with these," Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman P L Singh said at a seminar on taxation, organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in New Delhi.

MNC's prefer stability in tax laws, sound judicial system and security of investment, he said, adding the government has improved and amended the tax laws to keep pace with the changing scenario.

India has so far signed tax treaties with 70 countries for avoidance of double taxation and investment protection, Singh said, referring to the investment-friendly taxation regime.

Stressing on an overall congenial economic environment for investment, Akhilesh Ranjan, joint secretary in finance ministry, said government's policy thrust has been to phase out tax incentives as it was leading to misuse, relocation of business and did not necessarily boost exports.

Pointing out that incentives alone would not create an investment-friendly tax regime, Ranjan said, "We have an excessive number of incentives in our tax system. The policy thrust has been to phase out incentives that are not required."

In this regard, Ranjan pointed out there is no co-relation between tax incentives and growth in exports.

"Government's efforts would be to enlarge tax base by bringing in other segments of the country's population like retail traders under the tax net for fiscal consolidation," he said.

Observing that progressiveness of tax system is critical, the joint secretary said the finance ministry is of the view that an international consensus is required for bringing in e-commerce under the tax net.

Admitting that there are bottlenecks in the legal and judicial system, Ranjan said the government is trying to ensure effective redressal of tax disputes.

In this regard, he highlighted the government's decision to set up National Tax Tribunal and also to add more benches in Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

In this context, he said resolving tax disputes within a span of two years would be a major achievement.

In his address, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development administrator Shee Boon Lee highlighted the importance of bilateral tax treaties, transfer pricing and exchange of information to combat tax evasion in a global economy.

He said 800 treaties have been negotiated in the last ten years by 34 emerging economies. OECD had introduced transfer pricing guidelines way back in 1995 to facilitate governments in assessing tax on international transactions. Recognition and resolution of transfer pricing disputes was necessary for successful implementation of norms, he said.