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ajay thanks so much for joining us today
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so you're the managing partner at veish
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associates which is a law firm
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tell us a little bit about what you do
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there i am
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heading this firm which is a firm
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engaged in tax corporate and i p law of
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practice
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we have offices in delhi bombay
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bangalore and gurgaon and we are a firm
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with 80 attorneys
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some of them with dual qualifications of
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chartered accountancy and a lawyer
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or company secretary and a lawyer i am
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myself
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an accountant and a lawyer but you
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specializing in practicing as a lawyer
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now
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okay and what are the some of the areas
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that you practice
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um you know in terms of what kinds of
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law that you have personally
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i am a direct tax specialist so i
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practice
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on the tax side i'm responsible for
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tax advisory and also tax litigation i
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handle
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complex corporate tax matters up to the
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supreme court i litigate personally
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before the supreme court and the higher
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court okay
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um so tell us a little bit about the um
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the the environment for businesses in
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india
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um the legal environment for businesses
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what are some of the
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obstacles or hurdles that they have to
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face and
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and how do you help them through that
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businesses that are being set up in
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india required
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uh to obtain couple of permissions
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couple of registrations and we handhold
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foreign corporations in order to help
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them set up
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incorporate a company get them
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registrations which are necessary under
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the income tax act
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if a fipv permission is necessary for
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foreign investment
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seek the necessary permission or if an
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rbi approval is required
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help them obtain that so essentially
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handheld the company write till it is uh
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you know set up up and running
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and you have both foreign and domestic
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clients yeah we have a large clientele
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of
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large multinational corporations
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indian domestic business houses a good
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mix of both of them
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okay and right now as i understand it
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foreign law firms are not allowed to set
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up in
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india tell us about that and what are
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the pros and cons of
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of that see india made a commitment to
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the wto that they would open up the
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legal services market
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but within india opinions are divided
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one set of law lawyers feel that
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if the foreign law firms are allowed to
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set up shop in india
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with their deep pockets they would be
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able to
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poach talent and poach business from the
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existing law firm so that's clearly a
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threat
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that many people feel and the other
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thing is
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they feel that with the foreign law
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firms coming in people will tend to go
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in for retaining their services and they
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would take away the cream of the work
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so again uh and the experience with
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the accounting firms on the accounting
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side the big four are present in india
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and fact of the matter is the big four
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handle you know
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the top end of the work so lawyers
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don't want that to be repeated and
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lawyers want
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that if india should open up they should
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equally have reciprocity
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in the other countries as well you spoke
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about the big four
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um accounting firm setting up what
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do you offer as a law firm that's a
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little bit different
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than say the tax practice of a big four
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accounting firm
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see basically as i told you i am both an
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accountant and a lawyer i started
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practice as
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an accountant and was a partner with
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deloitte but
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didn't find that challenging enough you
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know litigation was my forte
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and what the cutting edge that we have
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compared to
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the accounting firms who are engaged in
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tax practice
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is that we provide the end-to-end
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solution we are in tax advisory
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we conceptualize the approach that the
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client must follow
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and if it gets into litigation you know
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we can navigate
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uh the litigation and see that
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ultimately our stand is vindicated
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whereas the week four will eventually
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have to hire lawyers
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at some stage of the litigation so
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and and i i think if you are in the
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court
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and you have a feel of uh what the court
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really thinks
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your advice is more practical in terms
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of talent you talked about you know
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if foreign law firms come in they might
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poach talent
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what do you look for in talent at your
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law firm i mean is it similar to
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a u.s law firm where there is an
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incoming class from the top
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law school say every year almost a
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stepwise kind of a hiring
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tell us a bit about how that works in
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india with law firms and your law firm
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yeah
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india also has now currently very good
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law schools
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we have a five-year integrated law
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course
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extremely professionalized with a very
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good curriculum
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and students from such law schools are
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extremely extremely
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knowledgeable polished competent so law
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firms look to hire
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these kind of students from these
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national law universities
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and that is one level of hiring the
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other is
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you do get people who are willing to
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move from one law firm to another or
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moving
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from industry to professional practice
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so that's the hiring at a relatively
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higher level
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so talk about one of the cases that has
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made some headlines
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vodafone has made some headlines uh
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regarding um
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the issue with hutcheson so tell us a
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little bit about that case and
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i think vodafone is a case that is
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currently being watched across the world
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and in this is a test case for india as
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well you
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see if shares of a company which is
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resident outside of india changes hands
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between two non-residents
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india does not have the jurisdiction to
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tax and that's been the accepted
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position in india
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in vodafone's case what has happened is
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the agreement provided that the change
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of
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shares at the bvi level a one dollar
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share
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of a bvi company has changed hands for
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i think billions of dollars and
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ultimately as a result of that
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the entire chain of subsidies including
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the last 10 was the india piece
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that has also chained hands so vodafone
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became the owner of the india subsidy
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which is running the vodafone network in
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india
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and the indian revenue said that this
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agreement which
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seems to be a simple agreement for
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transfer of shareholding of one dollar
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at the bvi level is eventually a
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transfer of business
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in india and transfer of assets in india
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which gives india the nexus to tax
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this transaction vodafone did not
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withhold
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any tax out of the payment made to
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achieve the sale consideration
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on the belief that no part of it was
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taxable in india
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so the indian revenue has taken the easy
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way to
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slap vodafone with a tax demand saying
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that you defaulted in your withholding
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obligation
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and therefore we need to recover this
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tax from you this case is being
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highlighted in the foreign media as well
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because if this
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goes in favor of the indian revenue it
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will become a test case for several such
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transactions which have taken place
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outside of india
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resulting in transfer of ownership of
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the india peace as well
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right and currently this is uh reached
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the supreme court the supreme court is
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going to hear it in july
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right so it's something to watch out
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yeah i think the international media and
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the international tax community
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is very alarmed about the prospects of
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this case right
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and last question um obviously
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the law um in india it's very complex
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there's been
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a lot of you know media attention about
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how difficult it is to get anything
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through courts etc
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what got you interested in the law to
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begin with why why did you choose it as
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a profession
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i always dreamt and visualized myself as
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a lawyer standing in court and arguing
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it took me some years to actually
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realize that
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you know that was my calling and i then
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gave up my
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chartered accountancy degree to
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specialize into law
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i think every case that i fight is a
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challenge
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and it gives you a great high when you
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know you are able to put forth
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innovative interesting arguments
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irrespective of the consequences whether
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you win or you lose
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but a good nod from the judges or a good
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word of appreciation from the client
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that you've done your best i think
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gives you a great sense of achievement
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thank you so much for joining us thank
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you
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you
