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 are very happy, he’s a great hire, 23 years in the government and we wanted to fill that space from the regulatory and indirect tax side, apart form the usual excise and customs [expertise he also has in addition to economic offences].”

The other indirect tax partner in Delhi is Suresh Varanasi, who joined in 2009 from KPMG, and Bahl said that he and Singh would provide a great combination of views from private practice and ex-government.

The internal AZB announcement read:

Mr. Singh, who belongs to the Indian Revenue Service and is a qualified lawyer, has held various senior positions in the Government of India during his twenty three year tenure and has extensive experience in the areas of Customs, Excise, Service Tax, economic offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act and the like, SEZ Policy, Anti-dumping and related aspects.