Seminars Conducted

Workshop on VAT

In view of lack of clarity on the forthcoming design of State-VAT and prevailing apprehensions on the impact of VAT on business process model and the resultant cost of compliance, the Foundation decided to hold a one day information workshop on VAT for the taxpayers for general public information. The workshop was organized on October 14, 2004 at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. It was attended by 27 senior executives of companies.

International Seminars

As part of the activities of the Foundation, it has organised the following International Seminars:

International Seminar on Tax Reforms and Tax Administration in India: To commemorate the completion of a decade of the existence of the FPEPR an International Seminar was held at the India Habitat Centre on Saturday the 8th December 2012. It was inaugurated by Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Prime Minister’s Advisory Council. More than 50 delegates from different organizations including some Finance Secretaries of the State governments, academicians from different universities, research institutes, viz. Indian Institute of Public Administration, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, existing and former Member-Secretary of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and officials of Central Government and World Bank attended the Seminar. This seminar brought together experts with research interests in the fields of tax policy and tax administration. It provided an opportunity to exchange ideas among practitioners, academicians and government policy makers. International perspective was added by the experts from different countries. The seminar was sponsored by M/s Image Public Relations Private Limited, Delhi.

International Seminar on Issues before the Thirteenth Finance Commission: An International Seminar was held at the India Habitat Centre on Saturday, the 17^th May 2008. It was inaugurated by Dr. Vijay Kelkar, Chairman, Thirteenth Finance Commission. More than 67 delegates from different organizations attended the Seminar. Important among these were the delegates from the Finance Commission, Delhi University, Jawarhar Lal Nehru University, Jamia Milia University, Reserve Bank of India offices of Delhi and Mumbai, experts from Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Dr. Anwar Shah, Lead Economist, World Bank Institute, Washington D. C. was the special invitee. He is a renowned expert on federal finance and also presented a paper on the subject. Present members of the Thirteenth Finance Commission and the past members of the Twelfth Finance Commission also participated in the Seminar. Dr. Arvind Virmani (Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India); Dr. Pulin Nayak, (Director, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi); and Dr. B K Chakrabarti, (Member, Planning Commission) each chaired a session. Seminar was sponsored by the Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai.

International Seminar on Reforms in Fiscal and Monetary Policies: The Road Ahead: The seminar was organized on 9^th December 2006 at India Habitat Centre. It was attended by a large number of Indian and foreign delegates. Dr. Anwar Shah, Lead Economist, World Bank Institute, Washington D C chaired one of the sessions. The other two sessions were chaired by Dr. Saumitra Chaudhuri of ICRA and Prof. B L Pandit of Delhi School of Economics. The Seminar was sponsored by Reliance Industries Ltd.

Seminar on International Taxation: To receive and have presentation of views of the visiting international experts to the FPEPR from the OECD, a seminar was organized on International Taxation on Monday the 21^st November 2005, at India Habitat centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. The seminar aimed at having exposition of views of Dr. Jeffery Owens, Head of the OECD Centre on Tax Policy and Administration and of Mr Bill McCloskey, Chairman of the Committee of Fiscal Affairs, OECD. The seminar was attended by 38 persons from government, private and international agencies.

            Seminar on E-commerce and Economic Development: An International Seminar on E-commerce and Economic Development was organized on Saturday the 11^th December 2004 at India Habitat centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Twelfth Finance Commission of India. The seminar aimed at fulfilling the objectives of analysing the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) as an important infrastructure of growth in the Indian economy; highlighting that e-commerce is one of the most important factors that would revolutionise the economic growth in a country like India; emphasizing the growth and potential of e-commerce, which at present is far below the levels achieved in the USA, Australia, China, South Korea and Hong Kong; analyzing developments that have influenced business prospects by altering the ways of conducting business, and examining the issue of how the rise of e-commerce will affect the suitability of various concepts and practices in tax systems and in the long run, the overall economic development. The Seminar mainly concentrated on issues related to economic development and micro-foundation of e-commerce and evolved suitable policies for development of information highway and e-commerce. The Seminar was sponsored by Reliance Industries Ltd.