AMCHAM India hosted an interactive session with Ms. Enoh Ebong, Acting Director, USTDA and her team during their visit to India on 19thJune 2017 at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The meeting was focused on the future of U.S. – India economic collaboration and to understand the roadmap from USTDA for various sectors going forward. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, made welcome remarks and Ms. Enoh Ebong Acting Director, USTDA was introduced by Ms. Mehnaz Ansari, Country Representative – South Asia, USTDA.

Ms. Enoh Ebong, in her opening remarks highlighted some work supported by USTDA, such as shale gas projects, alternate power for telecom towers and the importance of revival of the Energy Cooperation Program between USTDA and the Indian Planning Commission, now known as the NITI Aayog, and she also emphasized the work they have done in smart cities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy was discussed. Mr. Henry Steingass, Regional Director for South and Southeast Asia, USTDA, added that a reverse trade mission is scheduled for September 2017 on refinery upgradation and another reverse trade mission is being planned for March 2018 with the focus on smart grid and energy storage.

AMCHAM members introduced themselves and talked about issues that they face while implementing their projects in India. Members also shared their expectations from USTDA regarding grants for feasibility studies and pilot projects. They also suggested that U.S. companies should work as a group of solution providers rather than working individually.

Mr. Naveen Tandon, Co-Chairman – ICT Committee, AMCHAM and Director – International External Affairs, AT&T, spoke about the importance of carbon footprint while implementing telecom projects. Ms. Aslesha Khandeparkar, Country Head & Senior Director, Oracle India, spoke of Oracle’s contribution to the power sector. Mr. Shailendra Kumar, Project Director, Flour Daniel India, revealed that they had successfully implemented a bottoms upgrade with Bharat Petroleum with support from USTDA. He said Flour Daniel had contracted to build the world’s largest pet coke facility for Reliance. Mr. A.N Bakshi, Managing Director, Cambridge Energy Resources, spoke at length about his company working on projects to convert telecom towers using diesel to ethanol to solar energy. He said he was already involved in 200 sites in Uttar Pradesh which was the only state to have a micro power policy.

The event concluded with vote of thanks from Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM India.

The first meeting of AMCHAM’s CSR Committee for 2017-2018 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Harish Krishnan, Executive Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagement, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) was held on 16th June 2017 at the Cisco office in Gurgaon. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, in her opening remarks, mentioned the correlation between CSR and incubator creation and highlighted the innovation and growth program that AMCHAM wants to get involved in. Mr. Krishnan mentioned that the committee should make a more concentrated effort to capture the sector and state of member companies CSR activities in an easily digestible manner. He also expressed the desire to have the committee identify one project they could work together on.

Ms. Valerie Swope, Program Coordinator, AMCHAM, gave a brief overview of 2016-2017 committee activities. Members introduced themselves and highlighted the categories of CSR projects their organizations were focused on such as education, skill development, health and sanitation, nutrition, environmental conservation, agriculture, women’s empowerment, safety, etc. There was a video presentation on IBM’s program P-Tech by Ms. Joyeeta Das, Program Manager, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM India.

It was decided the committee would have four committee meetings a year and that it would be helpful to have another session with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs to learn about new developments in the national volunteer guidelines and any new nuances in laws that would be applicable to CSR.

AMCHAM’s Eastern Region, in association with EY as their knowledge partner, organized a roundtable discussion on the goods and service tax, ‘GST & GSP – ASP – Latest Developments, Impact Areas and Way Forward’ on 16th June 2017 in Kolkata.

Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Partner – Tax & Regulatory Services, EY, gave the opening remarks regarding the ongoing developments on GST in India vis-à-vis global economies, followed by a detailed presentation by Mr. Sidhartha Jain, Partner – Indirect Tax, EY. Mr. Jain deliberated on critical areas having a bearing on various sectors/industries especially on IT-ITeS and the services sectors. He also discussed about the credit mechanism, compliance requirements (vis-a-vis role to be played by GSP-ASP) and present status of the government, industry and other stakeholders from a preparedness perspective. He gave further insight on various business, IT and process changes that GST would entail.

The interactive session generated a lot of queries which were explained in detail by both Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Jain. Mr. Debdas Sen, Chairman – Easter Region, AMCHAM and CEO, TCG Digital Solutions, hosted the event. Mr. Sen gave the welcome address and concluded the session with a vote of thanks to the EY team and members present and said that more sessions on GST would be planned, as requested by the members present, since it was important to help members understand the direct implications as GST gets rolled out.

AMCHAM’s Tamil Nadu Chapter held a panel discussion on GST on 15th June in Chennai. The members of the panel were Mr. Soumyaranjan Biswal, Advisor, KPMG, Mr. K. Sivarajan, Partner, PwC, Mr. L. Sayee Mohan, Partner, Deloitte, Mr. B. Sriram, Partner, EY and moderator Mr. A. Viswanathan, BS&B Safety Systems India Limited. The tone for the meeting was set by Mr. A. Viswanathan who remarked that GST will be the biggest reform in Indian taxation since 1947, but there are many challenges for which solutions are being worked out gradually. GST is conceptually a destination based tax levied on consumption of goods and services and India has chosen to implement the dual GST model and he hoped that the reform proves beneficial, not only for the common man but for the country as a whole. As we look forward to the 1st July roll out, he thanked AMCHAM for organizing this panel discussion for members and also thanked the participants, a large attendance, which underscored the importance of the subject.

Panel members were allotted specific aspects of GST that impacts business operations of AMCHAM members. Mr. K. Sivarajan, Partner, PwC focused on issues around what constitutes a taxable event, problems, grey areas and precautions to be taken relating to availing input tax credit, availing credit through input service distributor and possible pitfalls in valuation. Mr. L. Sayee Mohan, Partner, Deloitte, highlighted concerns covering place of supply and time of supply for goods and services, changes in strategy to be considered by manufacturers in the GST era and changes in strategy to be considered by service providers in the GST era. Mr. Soumyaranjan Biswal, Advisor, KPMG, focused on the impact on real estate, retail and e-commerce, issues relating to imports and difficulties relating to exports including impact on export incentives. Lastly, Mr. B. Sriram, Partner, EY spoke about the transition provisions and procedural issues in migrating to GST, major difficulties in complying with GST rules and potential liability of directors for non-compliance and how investment incentives are given by states under MOUs likely to be handled.

After opening remarks by the panel members, a very detailed interactive session followed and many members used the opportunity to seek clarification on the impact of GST on their business operations. Clarifications were sought on e-way bills; transactions when goods are on the high seas; invoicing of goods; tax invoicing; input tax credit; retail or commercial invoice; bill of supply; generating an invoice reference number through the GSTN portal; time limit for issue of tax invoice for supply of goods; invoicing when the supply involves movement of goods and when it does not involve movement of goods or in the case of continuous supply of goods, or when the goods are actually deemed to be used by the end customer; issues relating to warehousing and packaging; services to employees by employer etc. All the panel members emphasized that it is imperative for organizations to seek clarity when in doubt and to maintain records of transactions very meticulously. The meeting came to an end with the moderator, Mr. A. Viswanathan, thanked panel members for their time and provided very lucid clarifications to queries made by members.

AMCHAM’s Eastern Region, in association with EY as their knowledge partner, organized a roundtable discussion on the goods and service tax, ‘GST & GSP – ASP – Latest Developments, Impact Areas and Way Forward’ on 16th June 2017 in Kolkata.

Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Partner – Tax & Regulatory Services, EY, gave the opening remarks regarding the ongoing developments on GST in India vis-à-vis global economies, followed by a detailed presentation by Mr. Sidhartha Jain, Partner – Indirect Tax, EY. Mr. Jain deliberated on critical areas having a bearing on various sectors/industries especially on IT-ITeS and the services sectors. He also discussed about the credit mechanism, compliance requirements (vis-a-vis role to be played by GSP-ASP) and present status of the government, industry and other stakeholders from a preparedness perspective. He gave further insight on various business, IT and process changes that GST would entail.

The interactive session generated a lot of queries which were explained in detail by both Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Jain. Mr. Debdas Sen, Chairman – Easter Region, AMCHAM and CEO, TCG Digital Solutions, hosted the event. Mr. Sen gave the welcome address and concluded the session with a vote of thanks to the EY team and members present and said that more sessions on GST would be planned, as requested by the members present, since it was important to help members understand the direct implications as GST gets rolled out.

The first HR Committee meeting for the year 2017-18 was held on 14th June 2017, at the KPMG office in Bangalore. Ms. Ines Miranda, Regional Director – Karnataka Chapter, AMCHAM, introduced Mr. D.P. Singh, Chairman – HR Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President – Human Resources (India/South Asia), IBM, who would be continuing as chairman for the second year in a row. They thanked Ms. Shalini Pillay, Head HR, KPMG, for hosting the meeting.

Each committee member was requested to share topics and themes of interest and deliberated. They decided to focus on the following three themes for this year:

• Upskilling, talent management, capability
• Inclusion and diversity
• Digitization of HR

A timeline and agenda would be drawn for the year and would be finalized based on the committee’s suggestions.

Thereafter a presentation was given by Ms. Shalini Pillay. The presentation was based on KPMG’s best practices ‘KPMG Internal Story for New Joiners,’ which focused on encouraging employees to believe in the values and goal of their workplace. Ms. Pillay explained the importance of continuous motivation and reminders that employees require to feel a part of a team. This was followed by Mr. D. P Singh’s presentation on an IBV study (IBM institute of Business Value) entitled ‘Upskilling India: Building India’s Talent Base to Compete in the Global Economy.’

It was decided to award an HR Committee member or HR charter team member with special recognition for their contribution toward the AMCHAM HR Committee in the past two years.