The Tax Working Group under the Tax, Tariff & Regulatory Affairs Committee met on May 31st under the leadership of the committee Chairperson, Ms. Neeru Ahuja, Partner, Deloitte India and the Co-Chairperson, Ms. Garima Pande, Partner & National Leader, Global Compliance & Reporting, Ernst & Young LLP. The working group prioritized issues on refund processing through the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), challenges with the India SEZ structure, changes in withholding tax provisions and related compliances, emerging GST issues such as cross charge vs ISD, impact analysis of new legal decisions like the SC ruling on GST on secondments, tax implications of labor laws and the pre-budget recommendations. These issues were high on advocacy, representation, and knowledge dissemination and for further discussion within the committee. The working group felt that certain issues with cross ministerial implications should also be sent to designated nodal agencies from AMCHAM such as DPIIT and Invest India for faster resolution. Members agreed to share inputs on issues of concern.

AMCHAM’s Defense Committee members convened in a hybrid fashion on May 25th to discuss the activities in the sector. This was the first committee meeting after constitution of the committee leadership for 2022-2023. Ms. Udaya Arun, Director – Aerospace & Defense, AMCHAM opened up the meeting and welcomed the new leadership to the committee: Mr. William L. Blair, Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President and Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, Mr. Ravi Nirgudkar, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, BAE Systems India Services (Pvt.) Limited, Mr. Surendra Ahuja, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Boeing Defense India and Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Partner and Head – Aerospace & Defence, KPMG India. Members also welcomed CAPT Michael Farmer, Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), U.S. Embassy. Mr. William Blair quickly shared a brief on AMCHAM’s Defense Delegation to DC in September/October 2021 and members were updated on the upcoming Door Knock Delegation 2022. Members deliberated on the key asks that the delegation should bring to the forefront during the discussions in Washington DC and the level of engagements and officials that the group should call upon.

AMCHAM’s Karnataka Chapter hosted an event in partnership with the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) on May 25th on the topic of ‘Unleashing the Power of Data in Business Decision Making’ over breakfast in Bengaluru. The session focused on real life case studies of how data powered decision making can change the paradigm of the role of finance followed by interactive Q&A with the audience. The speaker, Ms. Sandhya J., Group Chief Financial Officer, Narayana Health, gave attendees an exclusive peak into a data democratization journey at Narayana Health using Medha Analytics®, an inhouse tool developed by Narayana Health. Participants gained a greater understanding of how data can unleash real value that finance leaders can create in steering business outcomes. The event was attended by AMCHAM members such as Hewlett Packard, Johnson Controls, Timken, Herbalife, Texas Instruments, 3M and more.

On May, 19th, AMCHAM’s Karnataka Chapter hosted an interaction with Schmidt Futures to learn about a unique opportunity, QUAD Fellowships, which are $50,000 scholarships awarded for graduate study in STEM fields in the United States. The objective was for interested companies to promote the fellowships to their workforce and to discuss developing QUAD internships and other networking opportunities. The members of the delegation were: Ms. Barbara Bush, Executive-in-Residence, Ms. Danielle Holman, Manager of Talent Selection, Ms. Sonia Thosar, Analyst. The session was attended by Mr. Sanjay Koul, Vice Chair and Chairman – Karnataka Chapter, AMCHAM and Chairman & Managing Director, Timken India along with representatives from Rossel Techsys, Enphase Energy, GARP, Netapp, Optum, Shanti Bhavan, Inteva Products and Accenture.