KPMG India Asks for GAAR Clarification

By Michael Foster, Big4.com Blogger

Deputy CEO and Tax Chairman of KPMG India Dines Kanabar has asked the government to clarify its new and controversial General Anti-Avoidance Regulations.

Kanabar has said that auditors and accountants are concerned that a conflict of interest amongst committee members would cause them to look at transactions unfairly. ““I think the industry is looking for a broad based committee which can look at transactions from a business perspective, rather than a revenue official who sits and comments on tax issues, that would be a much-much welcome thing,” he said.

The GAAR guidelines are a product of the Finace Act of 2012, which was designed to make stricter regulations about corporate and individual tax avoidance.

The concern that Indian and foreign businessowners have, says Kanabar, is knowing exactly how new committees will look at transaction statements. “Hopefully the new committee will be able to set out a statement of purpose, but there is one other issue which comes up and that is whether the government will be able to give a comfort that GAAR will be implemented in an even handed manner, apart from putting out a guideline frame work,” he said.

There is also concern that the committee needs to look at the transactions from a “business perspective,” Kanabar said in an interview. “Under the law we have a committee comprising of three people, two of whom are chief commissioners of Income Tax, one of whom is a secretary outside of finance. Can we really have a far more broad based committee?”