Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has hired former Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi principal associate Mekhla Anand as an indirect tax salaried partner in its new Delhi office.

AZB & Partners has hired ex Indian Revenue Service (IRS) senior official KP Singh as a partner in Delhi to specialise in regulatory and indirect tax, who joined earlier today. “We were [eagerly] waiting for the government to give him his release,” said AZB Delhi managing partner Ajay Bahl. “We ...

Ernst & Young (EY India) executive director Amit Bhagat joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a partner in the indirect tax practice with his team of 12 professionals.

Clasis Law has recruited Grant Thornton indirect tax director Manoj Mishra as head of indirect tax in Delhi – the first hire in the practice area. Before 2007 he was working at Khaitan & Co, reported Bar & Bench.

Khaitan & Co former indirect tax executive director Manish Mishra joined Link Legal - India Law Services as a partner on Monday.

Live: The Budget 2012 speech is kicking off at 11am and Legally India will blog it live. What do you think it holds for lawyers and clients? Hike service tax for lawyers or abolish it? Increase FDI? Vodafone, round 27? DTC news? Tinker with near-unusable LLPs? Massive tax benefits for all? Damp squib? Share your thoughts and follow our live blog.

”) 11:00am The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s 2011 India Union budget has just started after having been approved by cabinet. This blog will begin in earnest once the budget is over and we can get reactions from lawyers. In the meantime, IBN Live has a nice live blog page with a fast video and text updates. Please post your comments and thoughts on the budget below in the meantime.

Luthra & Luthra has continued its Delhi-round of internal promotions taking the partner promotion tally to three this December with the latest promotion of managing associate J P Singh to an indirect tax partner.

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

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has engaged the former chairman of the Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission Jogendra Singh as an indirect tax senior adviser, making it the second senior expansion of JSA’s tax practice in two months.

AZB & Partners Delhi has hired an indirect tax partner and his team from accountants KPMG, hoping to grow the tax advisory business at the law firm which will compete in the traditional domain of accountancy firms.

Today’s Budget has introduced measures to give greater certainty to advance tax rulings to avoid litigation, which has been cautiously welcomed by Indian tax lawyers as appealing particularly to foreign investors.