There have been two major developments in global transfer pricing in recent years

Transfer pricing presents substantial tax planning opportunities

Chiltern Plc is a London-based company that advises clients on international taxation. "At Chiltern we make it a point of being different. Not for the sake of it but because that is what our clients want. We're large enough to offer the very best advice and support, but we're independent, and small enough, to offer a genuinely personal service," declares http://www.chilternplc.com,/ the company's site. Chiltern is a member of Taxand, `the first independent global tax alliance of independent and specialist tax firms (now including more than 1,500 tax professionals with firms in 33 countries)'.

As the Head of Transfer Pricing at Chiltern, Shiv Mahalingham, is definitely different. Before embarking on a career in transfer pricing, he played three seasons of basketball in the Southern Conference of the English Basketball League, as one learns from his bio. "Shiv has previously worked in the Big 4, predominantly advising large multinational companies in relation to transfer pricing and value chain optimisation.

He regularly publishes articles in the international trade press and, at the age of 26, was accepted as one of the youngest fellows in the history of the UK's Chartered Institute of Taxation on submission of his thesis on modernising UK tax legislation whilst maintaining the competitiveness of the UK economy."

Here is Shiv, taking on a few questions from Business Line.

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Dhananjay Joshi, President, ICWAI on cost audit

ICWAI doing a SWOT of cost audit

A recent mail from a reader throws a bombshell. `Mandatory cost audit is going to be abolished,' he says. But this is not the first time we have been hearing such predictions. Meanwhile, the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) has been working hard to justify the audit in question. For instance, a few weeks ago, the Institute held a national seminar, `Cost audit - A way ahead', in Delhi.

"Cost audit is a system which builds the competitiveness in the industry to face the global challenges and it is oriented towards corporate governance," averred Mr Dhananjay Joshi, president of the Institute, in an interaction with Business Line on the eve of the seminar. "We, the Institute, are in a receptive mode and are considering the seminar as an opportunity to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of cost audit as a system," he said.

ICWAI doing a SWOT of cost audit
Interview

Preeti Malhotra, President, ICSI on the new law in the making

`Self-regulation is a dominant theme of the new company law'

Company law reforms may get a push during the second half of the Budget Session, when the Companies Bill and the Competition Bill are expected to be introduced in Parliament. A few weeks ago, while inaugurating the National Seminar on `Limited Liability Partnership' organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in Delhi, the Minister of Company Affairs, Mr Prem Chand Gupta, spoke about the law-in-the-works.

Taking it forward, Business Line interacted with Ms Preeti Malhotra, the recently-elected president of the Institute, to know what changes the ICSI is looking for in the new company law on the anvil.

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Interview

Meet Sunil Talati, President, ICAI

Networking not working with CAs

Meet the new president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Mr Sunil Talati, who assumed charge last week. One of his first tasks was to announce `Mission Statement 2007'. Top on his list of priorities is `support to the Government in policy formulation'.

How is the relationship between the Institute and the Government departments? "At its very best and at the peak," says the prez, when Business Line posed him this question recently.

"Government departments, particularly, the Ministry of Company Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Commerce have been extremely proactive and have involved us in number of areas not only in policymaking and decision formulation, but also to see how best they can utilise the services of CAs (chartered accountants) in government departments," he elaborates.

Here is more, from Mr Talati.

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Interview