Moneycontrol.com reports that the global board of KPMG and its global council were in India last week not only to hold their meetings in the country, but also to get a first-hand experience of India as an investment destination. On this occasion, John Veihmeyer, global chairman, KPMG was interviewed on CNBC-TV 18. He said, “It is very important that our leadership in the countries all over the world understand the India story and there is no better way to convey that than to get them all here… it is a great opportunity for the companies that we work with all over the world to be better informed about the opportunity in India. Here, we are going to hear from a number of government officials, we are going to meet with clients and hear from our leadership here in our local practice about what those opportunities for investment are.”
Veihmeyer said that India was the fastest growing region of the KPMG world, and its firm in India contributes to the rest of the network in terms of resources and thought leadership, accelerating innovation and growth across the entire KPMG group.
When asked about how strong the global leaders’ commitment to India was, he said that the new government and the new leadership had created a tremendous amount of optimism, and there was a growing sense of confidence around the world that India is an absolute positive source of investment. “India is a good story all the way round,” he noted.
Commenting on what downside risks KPMG was focused on, Veihmeyer recounted that geopolitical risks around the globe had become the #1 concern throughout the world as it had an impact on the economy and its recovery as well. The second major risk factor was the regulatory environment that varied in countries, thereby making it very challenging for companies to grow and expand in a time when companies are very much trying to globalize.
Discussing the regulations and reforms in India KPMG’s global chairman said, “The positive dynamic around some of the BIFR (board for industrial and financial reconstruction) evolutions and the conversations taking place right now is to try and create a more level-playing field… I am very much supportive of any effort to get as much consistency as we can by getting governments working together to try and develop a common platform and a level playing ground if you will for companies trying to do business cross-border.” He felt that the Modi government understands that nothing hurts expansion of business more than uncertainty and it has announced that it is not interested in creating further expansion of a retrospective regime around tax policy, and the whole universe of reforms that Modi is talking about in terms of ease of doing business in India sends strong signals to investors, he added. The directional moves around lower tax rates and the introduction of the GST are being viewed positively in terms of creating additional certainty and creating a more sustainable platform for the economy to grow in India, he said.
Veihmeyer concluded the interview by disclosing that KPMG was expecting a billion dollars of M&A possibilities over a period of three years, and remarked that “India again is a great source of talent and potential companies that would fit very well whether we are talking about in the digital space or cyber capabilities or the data analytic skills.”
