It Happens Only In India - Revenue Officers answering questions from the Trade - TIOL Workshop in Mumbai

By Vijay Kumar

AMERICAN born, China-based International Taxation Expert Laurence E Larry Lipsher who was a speaker in our Mumbai workshop on Friday was amazed that the Indian Customs Chief and his officers were facing a volley of questions from the trade and industry. The much travelled Larry said that he has not seen this kind of interaction anywhere in the world and this was the best example of participatory democracy.

It was the first time that we were organising a workshop in Mumbai and it was a huge success, with the captains of the Industry and trade interacting with the Chairman of the CBEC and his officers.

Undoubtedly the Chairman, CBEC, S Dutt Mazumder was the star of the show. Here was a Chairman who after giving a scintillating speech, defending every clause of the Budget, sat through to answer the questions from the assessees and each question was followed by a couple of supplementary questions.

The Chairman said that he was already aware of several issues as he had been interacting with the trade and he promised to look into several issues raised by the participants. He had even asked TIOL to prepare a list of issues raised and suggestions made and submit them to him by Saturday, which we have done. Let us hope that many of the problems would be sorted out.

We are indeed thankful to CBEC and its dynamic Chairman.