india watch issue 17

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India WatchISSUE 17 JULY 2012

In association with

Welcome to the Summer edition of GrantThorntons India Watch, in association with theLondon Stock Exchange

Our guest contributor, Adam Forshyth,

research Director at Arden Partners, highlights

how continued demand for power in India is

driving opportunities for companies with secured

coal stocks and renewable energy capabilities.Lastly, Anshu Khanna, Partner at Walker,

Chandiok & Co, gives us an update on the

international and local concerns on the proposed

General Anti-Avoidance Regulations (GAAR)

and explains how these may affect cross-border

deals, foreign investments into India and domestic

business transactions.

If you would like to discuss any of the matters

arising in this issue or how Grant Thorntons

South Asia group can help you please contact us.

In this issue we highlight that the Grant

Thorntons India Watch Index underperformed

against its peer indices but it remained resilient

over the year. It appears that energy, mining and

related infrastructure companies are taking thebiggest falls.

The second quarter of 2012 saw domestic deal

activity reinforcing the local belief in the India

growth story by clocking up a total of 89 deals,

amounting to USD 1.3 billion. Cross border deal

activity, however, mirrored ongoing global woes

and economic uncertainty, to notch up only USD

5.1 billion worth of deals for the quarter. Private

Equity for the quarter also saw a fall, clocking up

USD 1.8 billion in deal value.

We take a look back over the last 6 months

and review what progress and developmentshave taken place in Indias economy. In the first

three months of 2012 Indias economy grew at

its slowest rate since 2003 with GDP growth of

only 5.3%. For the financial year to March 2012,

Indias real GDP fell to around 6.5%, down from

8.4% in the previous financial year.

Anuj Chande

Partner, Corporate Financeand Head of South Asia Group

Grant Thornton UK LLP

T+44 (0)20 7728 2133

[email protected]

Munesh Khanna

Senior PartnerGrant Thornton India LLP

T+91 22 6626 2600

[email protected]


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India Watch - Issue 17 July 2012

Grant Thorntons India WatchIndex remains resilient over theyear despite Indias slower growth

In the second quarter of 2012, it was clear thatinvestor uncertainty in respect to India hadmanifested itself. While the Grant ThorntonIndia Watch index underperformed againstits peer indices in the quarter, the year to dateperformance remains encouraging.

80

90

100

110

120

130

Jun 2012May 2012Apr 2012Mar 2012Feb 2012Jan 2012

GT India Watch ALL

FTSE 100

FTSE AIM ALL-SHARE

GT India Watch smaller caps

FTSE ASEAN

FTSE AIM 100

FTSE AIM UK 50

Source:Thomson Datastream


3/12 3

India Watch - Issue 17 July 2012Indi

If the figures for our India Watch Small Caps

are taken as representative, a good performanceagainst the FTSE AIM ALL-SHARE and FTSE

AIM 100 can be seen, with the India Smaller

Caps Index closing four and five points ahead

respectively. A few clear winners and losers can

be seen in the index figures for this quarter: we

reported in Q1 that no real sector trends had

emerged and while the biggest rises in this quarter

are fairly diverse, it appears that energy, mining

and related infrastructure companies are taking

the biggest falls.

Clear winners in Q2 come from real estateinvestment, media and support services. DQ

Entertainment performed particularly well,

especially against the backdrop of their recent

history. The animation specialists gained five

points in Q2 after struggling in 2011 to keep costs

under control. This means DQ Entertainment

finish with a year to date index of -5, a good

performance given last years problems. Delivery

of higher profit margins on distribution and the

developments in their IP work have made a big

difference this quarter.

Financial services company EIH continue to

impress, with a solid two-point rise in Q2 and

an encouraging 67-point increase from Jan 2010

to date. Their offering of a diversified Indian

private equity portfolio, with exposure weighted

towards infrastructure and real estate, is the cause

of confidence among their directors that their

underlying portfolio has yet room to mature and

realise further cash distributions.

With a slim two-point rise in Q2 but a healthy

seven-point rise in year to date, real estate

investment company Eredene perhaps reflects thesame confidence in infrastructure investment in

India. As the company continues work to secure

investment in the Ennore Port project a 1.5

million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) build

for container shipping, and a recent shareholderdispute over Matheran Realty concludes, Eredene

are set to enter Q3 with great prospects.

Resilience in the sector wasnt shared by

real estate and investment firm HIRCO, whose

32-point fall was approaching that of firms who

had taken the largest hit. While mining specialists

Kolar Gold ended the quarter 37 points down, it

was the energy sector that appears to have borne

the brunt of the fall. Essar Energy continues to

disappoint, with consistent underperformance

that reflects overall poor results since its entry tothe index in Jan 2011. Biofuel producer Nandan

Cleantec and power generator OPG Power

Ventures both suffered sharp falls compared

with their year to date, but it was Mytrah

Energy and Oilex that took the greatest shocks,

42 and 62 points down respectively. Mytrahs

announcement to expand total wind assets to

500MW by March 2013, and Oilexs resumption

of studies into prospective wells in Gujarat state,

may well help to increase confidence over the next

two quarters.

Anuj Chande

Partner, Corporate Financeand Head of South Asia Group


T+44 (0)20 7728 2133

[email protected]

* The India Watch Index

consists of 31 Indiancompanies listed on AIM or

the Main Market (excluding

GDRs). We only consider

companies to be Indian if

they are domiciled in India

and/or foreign companies

holding Indian assets or

Investment companies

with Indian promoters. The

index has been created via

Datastream, a Thomson

Reuters product and is

weighted by Market Value.

To avoid distortion of index

trends, the two largest

market cap entities, Essar

Energy and Vedanta

Resource, are excluded.** Data sourced from

Thomson Reuters.


4/124


April June 2012 M&A dealscape

M&A deal values for Q2 2012 registered an

overall decrease of about 47% from Q2 2011 at

USD 6.32 billion, with the fall being attributable

to a considerable dip in cross border deal activity,

despite sustained momentum in domestic M&A.

Cross border M&A deal values in Q2 2012

fell about 54% vis--vis 2011 levels for the

same quarter. Structurally high food inflation,

high interest rates, slowing GDP, and poor

governance and policy paralysis have contributedto an under-whelming outlook for India for

the short term, causing foreign entities to put

their India investment plans on hold. Similarly,

Changing trends - Domesticdeal momentum continues toscore over cross border activity

Q2 2012 saw domestic deal activity reinforcing local belief in the Indiagrowth story by clocking a total of 89 deals, amounting to USD 1.3 billion, asagainst 86 deals at USD 1 billion for the corresponding quarter in 2011. Crossborder deal activity, however, mirrored ongoing global woes and economicuncertainty, to notch up only USD 5.1 billion worth of deals for the quarteras against USD 11 billion worth of deals for Q2 2011. Private Equity for thequarter also saw a fall, clocking up USD 1.8 billion in deal value, as againstUSD 2.9 billion for the corresponding 2011 quarter.

the continued European Union worries that

spooked investors throughout the quarter, along

with speculation of a Grexit, the spectre of

widespread defaults and volatile stock markets,

could have proved a deterrent, at-least in the near

future, to Indian companies looking to acquire

targets abroad.

Domestic deal activity continued to show

resilience, posting a 26% increase in deal values in

Q2 2012 as compared to Q2 2011 levels.

Q2 Deal Summary Volume Value (USD billion)

Year 2010 2011 2012 2010 2011 2012

Inbound 21 32 41 4.29 6.74 3.61

Outbound 62 53 24 4.63 4.26 1.46

Cross Border 83 85 65 8.92 11.00 5.07

Domestic & Internal Restructuring 114 86 89 2.53 1.00 1.26

M&A 197 171 154 11.45 12.00 6.32

PE 66 120 102 1.39 2.90 1.80

QIP 17 2 1 1.69 0.13 0.00

Grand Total 280 293 257 14.53 15.03 8.12

Deal summary: April - June 2012


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Top M&A deals: Q2 2012

Acquirer Target Sector Domestic/Crossborder USD million

Hongkong and Shanghai

Banking Corp

The Royal Bank of Scotland - retail and

commercial banking businesses in India

Banking and nancial services Inbound 1,895

Piramal Healthcare Decision Resources Group Pharmaceuticals, healthcare and biotech Outbound 680

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance

Company Limited

Max New York Life Insurance

Company Limited

Banking and nancial services Inbound 530

India Hospitality Corp Adelie Food Holdings Limited FMCG, food and beverage Outbound 350

Sony Pictures Television Multi Screen Media Media, entertainment & publishing Inbound 271

Roquette Freres Riddhi Siddhi Com Processing Private

Limited - Starch business of Riddhi Siddhi

Gluco Biols

FMCG, food and beverage Inbound 190

Ybrant Digital Limited PriceGrabber, LowerMyBil ls,

ClassesUSA.com

IT & ITeS Outbound 175

Bharti Airtel Qualcomm India Pvt. Limited Telecom Domestic 165

Fairfax Financial Holdings

Limited

Thomas Cook - India operations Travel and Tourism Inbound 163

Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited Pantaloon Retail India Limited (PRIL) -

Pantaloon format of business

Retail Domestic 160

M&A sector focus

Banking and financial services (BFSI) contributed

39% of deal activity by value in Q2 2012,

followed by pharma, healthcare and biotech

(12%), FMCG, food and beverage (9%), IT

and ITeS (8%) and media, entertainment and

publishing (6%).

The BFSI sectors performance was spurred

by two cross border deals - Mitsui Sumitomo

strategic stake purchase in Max New York

Life Insurance Ltd for about USD 530 million,and HSBCS deal to buy the Indian retail and

commercial banking businesses of Royal Bank

of Scotland for USD 1,895 million. Factors

such as the extended timelines to obtain branch

licenses from the Reserve Bank of India by

foreign banks, low banking and financial services

penetration in the country and fundamental

growth opportunities in the Indian economy

have made the Indian BFSI sector an avenue for

both domestic consolidation and foreign interest.

However, the sector has also seen some stress in

the form of deteriorating asset quality due to bad

loans to sectors such as aviation, and domestic

and overseas liquidity constraints. It will be

Banking and financialservices [39%]

Pharmaceuticals,healthcare and biotech [12%]

FMCG, food and beverage [9%]

IT & ITeS [8%]

Media, entertainment andpublishing [6%]

Others [26%]

Top M&A sectors: April - June 2012


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interesting to watch how the sector performs in

terms of deal activity in the second half of 2012.The biggest deal in the pharma, healthcare and

biotech sector was Piramal Healthcare Limiteds

acquisition of the US based Decision Resources

Group for approximately USD 680 million. The

impending patent cliff in the US, as well as rising

research costs, lower drug approval rates and

mounting regulatory pressures in the developed

markets have long been considered to fuel Indian

M&A activity in the pharmaceutical sector.

The Indian media, entertainment and

publishing sector has demonstrated growth in the

last few years due to headroom provided by risingdisposable incomes, strong consumption in tier

two and three cities, under-penetration and the

fast-growing new media businesses. It is therefore

not surprising that the sector saw players such

as Eros International Plc and Sony Pictures

Television increasing their stake in Indian entities.

The FMCG, food and beverage sector saw

an interesting deal in India Hospitality Corps

acquisition of Adelie Food Holdings Ltd, a

ready-to-eat food products supplier in the UK,

for a reported USD 350 million, signaling thereadiness of Indian companies to establish a

global presence.

Other sectors such as oil and gas, which

were top performers in Q2 2011, have shown

muted performance in the corresponding 2012

quarter. This could be attributed to the current

policy regime and the failure of some projects to

obtain clearances from several ministries such as

environment and forests, and defence.

Other sectors such as power and aviation are

expected to see heightened deal activity from the

Investor Investee Sector USD million

Morgan Stanley Continuum Wind Energy Power and energy 210

APG - pension fund Lemon Tree Hotels Hospitality 130

Warburg Pincus Future Capital Holdings Banking and nancial services 112

Advent International Corporation CARE Hospital Pharmaceutical, healthcare and biotech 105

TA Associates Omega Healthcare Management

Services BPO unit

IT & ITeS 93

Indivest Pte Limited - Government of

Singapore Investment Corporation

Pte Limited

Marico Limited FMCG, food and beverage 75

Sequoia Capital Global Equities Just Dial Pvt Limited IT & ITeS 61

ChrysCapital Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited Pharmaceutical, healthcare and biotech 56

NYLIM Jacob Ballas Super Religare Laboratories Pharmaceutical, healthcare and biotech 50

KKR TVS Logistics Services Logistics 48

Top PE deals: Q2 2012

second half of the year onwards, the former being

driven by attractive asset valuations, and thelatter by potential government measures to ease

FDI. The retail sector could also see heightened

activity once clarity is achieved on FDI in multi

brand retail.

The above deal rationales demonstrate that

whilst cross border activity might have slowed

down significantly, Indias fundamental growth

story remains strong. Ironing out governance and

structural issues could give the dealscape a much

needed shot in the arm.

Private Equity: Signs of a cautious slowdown

Private Equity (PE) for Q2 2012 fell by 38% to

total USD 1.8 billion, as compared to USD

2.9 billion for Q2 2011. The total deal values for

Q2 2012 have also registered a fall as compared

to Q1 2012, which saw USD 2 billion worth

of deals. While it may be too early to draw a

conclusive trend for PE for 2012, it seems that

PE investments have temporarily slowed down,

most likely due to the economic and regulatory

uncertainties currently clouding India.

Top sectors for PE in the quarter included IT& ITES (18%), pharma, healthcare and biotech

(15%), power and energy (14%), BFSI (13%)

and hospitality (8%). However, PE investors

who look at long term returns, have also

invested in those sectors of the Indian economy

that currently have a huge demand and supply

mismatch (power and energy), and massive

potential due to a burgeoning middle class with

rising disposable incomes (hospitality).


7/12 7


Karthik Balisagar

Valuations Manager and AssistantHead of Valuations South Asia Group


T+44 (0)20 7865 2475

[email protected]

With special

thanks for their

contribution to

Ankita Arora

and Sowmya

Ravikumar of the

Grant Thornton

India Dealtracker

team.

IT & ITeS [18%]

Pharmaceuticals,healthcare and biotech [15%]

Power and energy [14%]

Banking and financialservices [13%]

Hospitality [8%]

Others [31%]

Top PE sectors: April - June 2012Outlook for H2 2012

Notwithstanding the rather dismal M&A, andlackluster PE performance for Q2 2012 quarter,

this could well be the proverbial darkest hour

before the dawn.

The end of June 2012 saw some welcome and

rapid reprieves clarifications on GAAR not

being applied on a retrospective basis, an arrest

of the free-fall of the rupee and the resumption

of responsibility for the finance ministry by

the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was

instrumental in Indias economic liberalisation in

1990. From a valuation perspective, analysts now

deem India to be trading at historically low levels,and hence see attractive multiples. Further, Indias

domestic demand remains strong, thanks to rising

consumption levels and increasing purchasing

power in 2011, India rose to third place globally

in terms of purchasing power parity, only

behind USA and China, with reports suggesting

that India will continue to be the third largest

economy in 2015. The combination of these

factors could be a renewed interest in

Indian entities by foreign players and higher

inbound activity.Key drivers of outbound M&A such as strong

balance sheets, the need to look beyond home

markets and attractive valuations continue to

exist, even if the current economic uncertainty

in the European and American markets may

have put the cross border ambitions of Indian

companies temporarily on hold. Factors such as

the recent unveiling of a plan to address

Europes distressed banking sector by European

leaders could, if successful, see a rebound in

outbound M&A.

Finally, if the momentum demonstrated so far

by domestic deal activity also sustains in H2 2012,

the dealscape may see a turnaround in the latter

half of 2012. However, the industry will also

keep a wary eye on headwinds such as a possible

increase in fuel prices, deterioration of the

European situation, lackluster demand for exports

from other nations such as US, and much closer

home poor monsoons.


8/128


Munesh KhannaSenior Partner

Grant Thornton India LLP

T+ 91 22 6626 2600

[email protected]

In the first three months of 2012 Indiaseconomy grew at its slowest rate since 2003with GDP growth of only 5.3% in comparisonto the same period in 2011 well below analystexpectations and a decline of around 80 basispoints from the previous quarter (October 2011

to December 2011).The wider view of Indias economic position

also shows a substantial decline in economicgrowth. For the financial year to March 2012,Indias real GDP fell to around 6.5%, down from8.4% in the previous financial year.

So what has been the cause of this decline?

Persistently high inflation has dogged Indiaseconomy for a number of years now and evenwith a near-monthly increase in the countryskey interest rate recently (although it was kept at

8% in the last meeting of Indias central bank),inflation continues to be a significant thorn inthe side of Indias economy and its quest forstabilisation and increased growth.

The value of the rupee against the dollar hasalso played a material part in the destabilisationof Indias economy over the last few months inparticular. As reported by the BBC, since July lastyear, the Indian rupee has seen one of the biggestdeclines among Asian currencies against the dollar dropping by more than 27%. The depreciationof the rupee, coupled with a backdrop ofdeclining global demand and high inflation (as

highlighted above) has made the creation of aplatform from which sustainable and increasingeconomic growth can be achieved, incrediblychallenging.

While Indias government has attempted tointroduce new policies to help battle the countryseconomic decline, many analysts feel there is amajor lack of impetus as well as a clear, realisticgrowth plan. In addition, some important neweconomic reforms (particularly those which willallow greater foreign investment in India) havebeen delayed, for over a year, amid the on-going

corruption scandals which continue to cast a darkshadow over Indias political arena and furtherincrease the risk profile of the country for manyof those international institutions interested ininvesting in Asias third largest economy. The

An update on the Indian economyIn this economic update we take a look back over the last six months and reviewwhat progress and developments have taken place in Indias economy.

likely consequences of these corruption scandalsbeing that many prospective investors will eitherfeel that Indias risk profile is now too high forsignificant capital deployment or that valuationswill need to be knocked back considerably toaccount for the increased risk.

On a positive note however, and as reported inthe Economist:

IKEA, a Swedish furniture chain, boostedmorale by saying it would invest up to1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) in Indiaalthoughon closer inspection that sum was spread overmany years. Coca-Cola followed suit with theannouncement of an additional $3 billion ininvestment, taking the total earmarked for Indiaby 2020 to $5 billion. A ratings agency provedoddly helpful, too: on June 25th Moodys signalledit would not follow Standard & Poors and Fitch,

which have both warned of a possible downgradeof India to junk status. Its rating, which hoversjust within investment grade, remains stable, theagency said.

In addition, there is further hope following therecent resumption of responsibility for the financeministry by the Prime Minister, ManmohanSingh. Pranab Mukherjee, the previous financeminister, left his position on 26 June following aterrible time in office overseeing a substantialdecline in Indias growth rate, spiralling inflationrates and failing to put in place a suitable solutionfor Indias budget deficit. The hope in Premier

Singh comes from his previous track record asfinance minister, a position he held in 1991, whenhe was the driving force behind the opening upof India economy to foreign investment and theinitiation of the privatisation of publicsector companies.

The extent to which the appointment ofPremier Singh as finance minister will helpreverse the countrys current economic prospectswill be seen in time but it will certainly be seenas a move forward for many within India andthe wider global economy. If Premier Singh

is able to implement the much needed policyreforms prior to the next general election in 2014,Indias economy outlook is likely to improveconsiderably.


9/12 9


Adam ForsythResearch Director

Arden Partners

T+44 (0) 20 7614 5952

[email protected]

Indian power the next five yearsDespite threats to Indias GDP growth, powerdemand in India remains resilient. Against this,a significant barrier to entry has arisen: accessto coal. This will slow supply of new capacity,maintain a power deficit and put upward pressureon prices, despite the threat of lower growth.

Companies that have secured access to coal, orthose that are not dependant on it, are now in astrong position to benefit from better pricing andcontinued growth opportunities for new projects.

Power shortages remain a problem acrossIndia. Despite adding a record amount of newcapacity in 2011/12, the gap between peakpower demand and available capacity increasedfrom 9.8% to 10.6%. Recent press reports havehighlighted significant power cuts with someareas of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and AndhraPradesh facing outages of between four and nine

hours a day.In order to address this problem, India isplanning to add almost 100GW of new powercapacity over the next five years to an installedbase of 200GW. If successful it will be addingmore than the total installed capacity in the UK.However, almost 60% of the new capacity istargeted to come from coal generation and coalsupplies have come under pressure.

While there is political will to improve coalsupplies, we think there will still be a coal deficitacross the next five years. Coal India Limited willimprove production but the significant planned

increase in capacity means that the power sectorwill still need more imported coal. Imports ofcoal to the power sector could potentially doubleto meet the demands of new capacity.

A problem then arises because Indian powerstations have been designed for low calorie, highash Indian coal and are limited in the amount ofhigher calorie imported coal that they can burn.While new stations will be more flexible, policyis that, with the exception of specific coastalstations, they retain the ability to burn all Indiancoal if required. This factor will limit the total

amount of new capacity that can be added.As a result, even if we factor in a lower GDP

growth rate of just 6%, a power deficit is likely toremain despite the corresponding lower growthin peak demand. This means that there will still

be opportunities for new capacity developers whocan secure coal or who do not need it.

It is also likely that more imported coal willput upward pressure on electricity prices. Evendespite the recent fall in global coal prices, theyremain some 36% above the price of Indian coal

after adjusting for differences in calorific valueand transportation. The use of more importedcoal in the Indian fuel mix will raise the averagecost of production. Additionally some of thelarger power producers bid for contracts on thebasis of very low cost Indonesian coal. Indonesiahas subsequently introduced legislation tolink the price of exported coal to internationalbenchmarks, damaging the economics of thesecontracts. There is now considerable pressurefrom the power companies to have contractsrevised upwards.

The pressure for price increases may betempered by weaker global coal prices althoughthey would have to fall a lot further. Upwardrevisions may also be limited by the abilityof the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to payfor increases. However, with 16 SEBs in theprocess of implementing end-user tariff increasesthemselves, there is scope for the prices paid togenerators to improve in the long run.

In summary, the continuing deficit meansopportunities to bring new capacity to the marketwill remain and the upward pressure on pricesmeans that the potential rewards for doing so

should improve. Of course any new capacity willeither need secured coal supplies or not dependon coal. As a result we see opportunities forcompanies with secured coal (either in India orabroad) and for companies developing

renewable capacity.


10/12


11/12 11


Some of the emerging concerns, mentioned

below, are dampening M&A activity and thefunding market.

1 Very wide scope: Scope of Indian GAAR

is very wide as it seeks to cover all the

arrangements which have an element of tax

benefit accruing to the taxpayer.

2 GAAR v treaty provisions: Proposed GAAR

provisions would apply even if the treaty

provisions are more beneficial. A unilateral

enactment of a new domestic tax law which

is contrary to an existing treaty, without an

amendment to that treaty, could possibly beregarded as violation of international law and is

generally known as treaty override.

As per the rules of legislative interpretation,

specific legislation overrides general legislation.

Therefore, the argument may be taken that

a change to a domestic law generally, which

could be the case with GAAR, may not affect

the treaty. However, in the absence of an anti-

avoidance provision under the treaty, reaction

of Indias treaty partner countries needs to

be observed.

3 Wide powers of tax authorities: Tax authorities

are given powers to invoke GAAR by using

any one of the criterion which are vast as

well as ambiguous. Thus there is a need to

lay down more objective criteria and specific

administrative guidelines for invoking

GAAR and to establish a reasonable level of

accountability for the tax authorities.

4 Constitution of the Panel:It may be ideal if

certain industry experts are nominated for

the Approving Panel who can bring in their

expert knowledge/experience which can helpunderstanding the true business or commercial

purpose of a transaction.

Conclusion

A countrys tax regime is a very significant factorif not decisive factor for a foreign investor to invest

its funds in any jurisdiction. Today businesses

are looking at inorganic growth to achieve better

economies of scale, synergy and competency in the

form of business reorganisations. Therefore the

tax policies of the government need to be critically

framed as to achieve the purpose of tax reform and

also to be positive to the business environment of

the country.

Worldwide, GAAR has been criticised and

supported equally by international tax experts.The rule of law requires law to be certain and

predictable, such that law abiding citizens are

aware of what is permitted and what is prohibited.

While the concept of GAAR may be against this

principle, to some extent, GAAR is important,

since it is not humanly possible to make laws

for each and every tax avoidance tool used by a

creative taxpayer.

The success of GAAR lies in its judicious,

selective and sensible implementation. In the

Indian context, considering the aggression of tax

administration in some cases, the introduction of

GAAR may be worrisome to a tax payer unless

implemented in a balanced manner with adequate

safeguards for protecting the taxpayer. Tax payers

would keenly await draft subordinate legislation,

which law makers expect would be open for

public debate.

The intent of the Indian lawmakers to legislate

GAAR is progressive in so far as tax policy

decisions are directed. However, an important

question is whether, in the current context, the

introduction of GAAR is well timed, or if it isstill a premature effort towards alignment with

internationally accepted principles of

anti-avoidance.

Anshu Khanna

Partner Tax & RegulatoryPractice

Walker, Chandiok & Co

T +91 40 6630 8240

[email protected]


12/12

About usGrant Thornton UK LLP established a dedicated South Asia Group

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those investing into and from the Indian subcontinent. We are

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We are widely recognised as one of the leading international rmsadvising on India-related matters and have been in involved in every IPO

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As part of our commitment to remaining at the forefront of changes

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and to open up new areas and debate.

To participate:

www.grant-thornton.co.uk/thinking/emergingmarkets

More information about our South Asia Group can be found at:

www.grant-thornton.co.uk/sectors/emerging_markets/south_asia

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india watch issue 17

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