Vaish Associates has started a Mumbai indirect tax practice in its new Parel office with the hire of Paras Kuhad Associates partner Shilpa Sharma.

Sharma will join Vaish from 15 March as head of indirect tax.

Mumbai corporate head and senior associate Hemant Puthran said: “We have moved into a very big premises and we have the space now to expand. We want to add other practice areas to our Mumbai office.

“We have targeted indirect sales taxes as one of the areas to move forward and Shilpa has been in indirect tax for the last 14 years, so she will bring that practice with her.”

Sharma confirmed her move when contacted but declined to comment.

Vaish took a lease of 6,000 square feet in Parel’s Peninsula Centre in October of last year, which is enough space to add another 20 to 25 lawyers, explained Puthran.

In Mumbai the firm currently consists of 20 lawyers, which will rise to 21 with Sharma. Vaish has also signed up another indirect tax associate who will join from his current role in-house in April.

Vaish has expanded aggressively in the past year, setting up a Bangalore office, expanding indirect tax in Delhi, making best friends in Singapore and China with Dacheng Central Chambers and starting a competition law practice.

PKA founder Paras Kuhad confirmed Sharma’s departure but declined to comment.

Paras Kuhad Associates’ (PKA) Mumbai office has shrunk in size considerably to less than 20 lawyers, which is around a third of its former strength in Mumbai before the ill-fated merger with Hemant Sahai Associates on 1 October 2009.

The merger unravelled less than two months later after two of PKA’s Mumbai co-founders left to start up Vidhii Partners with their PKA teams.