Carsten Lammers, CFO of BMW Group India, calls for faster resolution and simpler procedures in India’s lengthy tax and customs disputes to boost investor confidence amid widespread delays and unresolved cases.
Carsten Lammers, chief financial officer of BMW Group India, said he was struck by how extensive and slow-moving tax and customs disputes can be in India, arguing that businesses need quicker resolution and simpler procedures to plan with confidence. Speaking at the third SIAM Automotive Taxation Conference, Lammers said some cases he had advised on as a lawyer a decade ago are still unresolved, leaving global companies to operate amid prolonged uncertainty.
His comments come against a wider backdrop of industry concern over India’s tax litigation burden. The Times of India reported that, as of April 1, 2025, nearly 5.4 lakh appeals were pending before the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), with disputed demands totalling about ₹18.16 lakh crore. The Economic Times has separately said some appeals can take 15 to 20 years to run their course, a delay that businesses and tax experts say weakens predictability and weighs on investment sentiment.
Lammers said India remains highly attractive to multinational companies because of its rapid economic growth, skilled workforce and expanding consumer market, but he added that investors need policy certainty as much as opportunity. He welcomed measures the government has already taken to make compliance easier, including faceless assessments, digitised goods and services tax processes, faster refunds, risk-based compliance systems and free trade agreements. Even so, he said some tax laws may still need to be simplified further.
He also described how the tax function has changed inside large companies, moving from a back-office role to one that helps manage risk and protect enterprise value. Lammers said BMW executives use artificial intelligence tools such as Copilot for daily data analysis, but stressed that AI is only a support tool and cannot replace human judgement or ethical decision-making in finance.
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