AmCham and the European Business Group (EBG) were invited by the Ministry of Finance on 10th December 2015 to make a presentation on the Pre-Budget Memorandum which had been submitted earlier.

The AmCham team was led by Mr. Indraneel Roy Choudhury, Partner, PwC; and Chairman, AmCham’s Tax, Tariff and Regulatory Affairs Committee, who made the presentation on direct taxes on behalf of both AmCham and EBG. EBG made a presentation on indirect taxes.

Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Revenue Secretary, was accompanied by:

Mr. Najib Shah, Chairman, CBEC
Ms. Rani Singh Nair, Member (L&C), CBDT
Mr. Alok Shukla, Joint Secretary (TRU-I), CBEC
Mr. Amitabh Kumar, Joint Secretary (TRU-II), CBEC
Ms. Pragya Saksena, Joint Secretary (TPL-I), CBDT
AmCham members said that the environment for business was positive and they would like to invest in India to strengthen its economy.

The Revenue Secretary assured that they were working towards streamlining and simplifying the tax system. With the introduction of GST, many of the issues raised by members relating to excise etc. would be resolved.