Editorial - The Chamber of Tax Consultants

Editorial
On 23rd March, 2015, Lee Kuan Yew, founding Prime Minister of Singapore passed away. He was a
visionary leader who gave shape to present day Singapore. The great jurist Mr. Nani A. Palkhivala
in his annual budget speeches on the Union Budget 1990-91, while concluding his speech, mentioned
“At a recent meeting of the world economic forum at Davos, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said to a
leading Indian businessman, “Indian economy is like a sleeping giant, which if awakened, could by
itself transform the face of the global economy. India has a potential to form independent economic
block on her own without too much dependence on anybody else.” Palkhivala further added that
“But in keeping with our forty year hallowed tradition, the budget this year will not be so rude as
to disturb the slumber of the sleeping giant”.
The Special Story for the Chamber’s Journal’s April issue is on Advance Ruling and Settlement
Commission. We are covering provisions pertaining to direct as well as indirect taxes. The initial
design as proposed by my good friend Mr. Bakul Mody was with respect to indirect taxes only.
However, our Chairman, Mr. Sanjeev Lalan persuaded me to include provisions pertaining to direct
taxes also. While covering direct tax provisions, we have restricted ourselves to Advance Ruling and
Settlement Commission, though the provision pertaining to dispute resolution panel were brought
on statute book by Finance (No. 2) Act, 2009 to create an alternative dispute resolution mechanism
within income tax department and section 144C was inserted ((2009) 314 ITR St 160 notes on clauses
of Finance No. 2 Bill, 2009). The tax legislation has suffered due to huge litigation it has generated.
Many attempts by the policy makers to reduce litigation or tax disputes by providing alternative
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combat is optional.” The authority of advance ruling provides opportunity to avoid litigation before
the event of tax happens. Settlement Commission in many ways gives an opportunity to the assessee
to catch the bus which he had missed by avoiding long drawn appeal provisions provided under the
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been achieved. I am reminded of Sandra Day O’Connor’s observation, “The courts of this country
should not be the place where the disputes end after alternative methods of resolving disputes have
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by the department challenging orders of the Settlement Commission.
I thank all the professionals who have contributed to this issue of the Chairman’s journal and I
would like to extend my special thanks to Mr. Bakul Mody for helping us with the design of the
Special Story and the editorial work.
K. Gopal
Editor
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