Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan is organising a half day seminar on “Historic Changes to Arbitration and Tax Legislations in India” on 27th September, 2017 at Maxwell Chambers, Singapore
India enacted the Arbitration and Conciliation Act in 1996 (“Arbitration Act”), based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The method in which this legislation was being applied by the parties and the interpretations that were being given to its provisions necessitated certain cardinal amendments and clarifications so as bring the arbitration regime in India in tune with the best practices across the world. To this end, amendments were made to the Arbitration Act which came into effect on 23 October 2015.
In January this year, the Government of India appointed a highlevel committee to review the institutionalisation of arbitration mechanism in India and also tasked the committee with a mandate to suggest reforms. The committee submitted its report on 30 July 2017 making several recommendations.
Indian parties are increasingly opting to resolve their international commercial disputes through arbitration seated in India and in foreign seats. In recent years, Singapore has been the most popular choice amongst Indian parties to locale their international arbitration matters. The first half of this seminar will focus on the recent changes made to the Arbitration Act, its impact and the way forward.
The second part of the seminar will focus on the recent, and the most historic tax reform that India has seen since independence - the launch of the Good and Services Tax (GST), which came into effect on 1 July 2017. While the basic theme of GST in India is the same as GST or VAT implemented across the world, it has significant differences. The session will focus on basics of the Indian system, especially its dual GST model, and the impact of GST on contracts, transactions and business arrangements. We look forward to seeing you there.