In 2001, 2003 and 2005, we welcomed Professor Klaus Vogel from Germany as our speaker and conference chairman. Professor Vogel does not need an introduction to any professional, who is interested in international taxation. His lifetime contribution to this subject has been enormous. For all of us who know his writings well he was a world authority on the interpretation of double tax treaties. His classic book (last published in 1997) is widely quoted by judicial bodies globally, including the Indian Supreme Court and the Authority for Advance Rulings in India. Professor Vogel passed away in December 2007. He will be greatly missed by all of us at the Foundation.
Some of the other eminent speakers who have spoken at our past
conferences include Jacques Sasseville from the OECD in Paris. It
was a great tribute to the quality of this conference to have him
speak to us for two years' running in 2003 and 2004. Mary Bennett
from the OECD in Paris was our special speaker in 2006. Other international
speakers include Professor Richard Vann from Australia, Professor
Daniel Sandler from Canada, Professor David Rosenbloom from the
United States, Professor Jean Pierre Legall from France, Professor
Arvid Skaar from Norway and Professor Michael Lang from Austria
to name a few. Last year, Mr. B M Singh (past Chairman - CBDT in
India) was one of our speakers in 2006 and a discussion panel member
in 2007. The conference also attracts a wide range of specialist
speakers in our several panel discussions. Over the years, the conference
has hosted nearly 300 speakers from more than 25 countries.
During 2004-2006, we were honoured by the presence of Honourable
Justice Quadri, Chairman of the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR)
in India. On each occasion, he had presided and spoken at the special
session during the conference to discuss some of his rulings. Last
year, Justice P V Reddi, the current Chairman of AAR, presided over
our panel discussion on Do Taxpayers have any Rights under International
Taxation. We have also invited Mr Vimal Gandhi, President, Income
Tax Appellate Tribunal, India to our conference this year. We trust
they will continue to attend our conference in future and give us
their active support. This year we have again International speakers
with worldwide reputation in International Taxation.
Besides this conference, the Foundation has plans for other activities to promote the knowledge and practice of international taxation. They include research, educational activities and publications on international taxation. Last year, Taxmann Publications published my book on Basic International Taxation (Second Edition) jointly under our FIT logo. The prime objective of the Foundation remains to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas among business and professional people, academics and government officials on tax issues from an international (not domestic) perspective.
One of the conference objectives is to provide an international conference experience to our delegates in India at Indian cost. So far, the delegate fee has been kept relatively low through sponsorship funds raised by the organizers. It is a low-cost conference with probably one of the lowest delegate fees in the world for a conference of this stature. Despite our best efforts, the costs of organizing the conference keep increasing. We need more sponsorships to meet these expenses.
We wish to thank our sponsors for their generosity and request them to continue their support. The conference offers them an excellent opportunity for both networking and marketing among the leading professionals in the field of international taxation in this region. We also provide some of our foreign speakers prior to the conference for in-house training sessions for professional firms in Mumbai to our major sponsors. If you or your organization would like to be a sponsor, please have a look at the “Sponsorship Form” webpage and download the attached form.
We request you review the other pages on this website for further details of the Foundation and its present and proposed activities. If you have any suggestions or wish to participate in the activities of the Foundation, please contact us.
We look forward to your support for the Foundation and its activities and to seeing you at our annual conference every December.
April 2010 |