The billion-pound free trade agreement with India has long been touted as a huge reward for Brexit.
Cheap clothes and shoes for British shoppers, a huge market for scotch whisky producers and luxury carmakers, and billions of pounds of additional trade, are the benefits of the deal, which was finalized this week.
However, all of this is covered up by the National Insurance Contribution (NIC). The government succumbed to the demand that when Indian workers are seconded to the UK on short-term visas, they and their employers should be exempted for up to three years. They will make social security payments in India - instead, British workers in India.
The senior Conservative Party has seized the franchise, which Kemi Badenoch calls a "two-tier tax." Nigel Farage said Keir Starmer "selled the highest level of British workers". Critics also raised questions about the impact of the deal on immigration and agriculture. But have their claims piled up?
A government source told the Guardian that the NICS concession is expected to cost the Treasury about £100 million in revenue.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told broadcasters on Wednesday that it was "less than one tenth" of the £1 billion additional tax revenue the deal is expected to bring. Government data shows that around 20,000 Indian workers who come to the UK to transfer can benefit, according to immigration service Vialto Partners.
Farage claims that over the past two years, half a million Indians arrived in the UK, "the deal will make the door open and even wider" and make it cheaper to hire Indian workers to hire British workers - but all of this is misleading, as most Indians will not benefit from applying for jobs in the UK.
The £100 million change is small in the grand scheme of government spending, but so far ministers have refused to issue an assessment of the possible assessment or impact of the number of Indians coming to the UK on temporary corporate transfers. This has intensified speculation.
However, ministers point out that such mutual tax agreements, known as double donation practices, are designed to prevent workers from temporarily drawing on foreign taxation twice, are not uncommon.
The UK already owns them in more than 50 countries, including the United States, Canada and Japan. India has reached social security agreements with several European countries, including Germany, France and the Netherlands.
While Badenoch was the business secretary, issues also appeared on the table during the talks under the Conservative Party. A senior Indian official told the Financial Times that the Conservative Party leader was talking about "trash" because she agreed to the principle of exempting temporary Indian employees from the NIC.
Nevertheless, India’s bragging press release – called the concession “an unprecedented achievement” and “make Indian service providers more competitive in the UK”, embarrassing the government for the government.
The fact that Rachel Reeves has increased national insurance contributions for employers in the budget has only started last month, meaning that the broader context is particularly harmful.
Finally, the NICS issue is one of the longest sustained points in trade talks, and the last hurdle before negotiators agreed to the deal was found in the last hurdle last week. This shows that this is an important concession, the government dug it up.
The fact that the deal does not include a large amount of additional visas for Indian workers – a key requirement for Delhi in its trade negotiations – is a victory.
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Labor claims that conservatives put visas on the table during negotiations and the current government has obtained the agreement without changing its immigration policies.
An existing visa route for yoga instructors, musicians and chefs to the UK will be open to Indian applicants, but they need to meet the usual salary and skill requirements. The route is limited to 1,800 visas per year.
This is a long way from India’s initial demands, but that did not stop Farach, with some senior Conservatives claiming the deal would lead to a massive influx of Indian immigrants.
Major services, including financial and legal departments, were not included in the transaction to raise criticism.
Meanwhile, negotiators have been trying to reach a bilateral investment treaty with India, which will benefit the city of London. Rishi Sunak was close to completing the deal when he served as prime minister last spring, but hoped to make up more of the economy's service sector.
But given the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs, the Labor Chief believes it is worth damaging deals that make that boundary by separating it from the investment treaty. It offers some benefits to the service industry, and most importantly, some Indian government procurements are opened for UK companies for the first time, but overall the deal reduces tariffs on goods.
The deal will reduce UK import taxes on some Indian agricultural products, including frozen prawns. This has raised an alarm about the impact of British agriculture.
Officials said the deal would benefit from raising tariffs on India’s tariffs on UK food exports, including lambs. Meanwhile, the UK is imposing tariffs on some agricultural products such as rice, and Indian exports may harm British producers.