Union Cabinet approves amendment of Social Security Agreement between India and Netherlands

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 June 2017 approved amendment of the bilateral Social Security Agreement (SSA) between India and the Netherlands by incorporating the 'Country of Residence' Principle into the SSA.

The amended SSA between India and the Netherlands will strengthen the ties between the two countries, and will continue to favourably impact the profitability and competitive position of Indian and Dutch companies with foreign operations by reducing their cost of doing business abroad.

The SSA will also help promote more investment flows between the two countries.

Key Highlights
• The amendment in the SSA come following the introduction of new rules on export of social security benefits to countries outside the European Union by the Netherlands in January 2013.
• Under the new Social Security (Country of Residence) Act, the amount of benefit or allowance paid to a qualified beneficiary (Dutch national) is adjusted to the cost of living of the country where the beneficiary is currently residing.
• As per the new Dutch legislation, social security benefits when exported or remitted would be indexed to the cost of living of the host country where the Dutch citizen resides.
• The new Dutch legislation has no implications for the Indian worker working in the Netherlands because it is applicable only to Dutch nationals residing outside the EU except for a very few exceptional cases.
• However, the "country of residence" principle will apply to a few instances of Indian nationals such as for Indian worker who dies in the Netherlands and has his/her spouse and children living in India or for Indian worker who gets disabled while working in the Netherlands and returns to India.

A bilateral Social Security Agreement (SSA) was signed between India and the Netherlands on 22 October 2009 and came into force on 15 June 2010.