From left to right: Ms Wong Hwa Kiong, Dean of the Faculty of Accountancy, Finance and Business (‘FAFB’), Rupini Kangasothy, Angelina Tai Fern Jian, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC, Thiban Raj Arumugam, Cheang Weizheng, Mr Michael Yeo Thiam Swee and Mr Chong Geok Chuang, Senior Lecturers cum Advisors of FAFB.
The reigning team category champion from TAR UC who competed at the national level of the Deloitte Tax Challenge in November 2015 has done it once again! The team made Malaysia proud by winning the Champion prize at the Deloitte South East Asia (‘SEA’) Tax Challenge 2016 conducted in Kuala Lumpur on 25 - 26 February 2016. These students, namely, Thiban Raj Arumugam, Rupini Kangasothy, Angelina Tai Fern Jian and Cheang Weizheng of the Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), as a team, beat contenders from Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
The students were given training on the first day, covering areas such as presentation skills, case studies and international tax issues. On the second day, the teams were given 1.5 hours to prepare and 20 minutes to deliver the presentation.
Rupini, one of the team members, was asked about the difference between the competition at South East Asia level compared to the one at national level and she replied: “As there were various Asian countries competing, we did not cover the Malaysian syllabus on tax issues anymore. Instead, we covered international tax issues quite extensively”.
Cheang Weizheng, another team member, spoke about his experience at this level of competition. “Competing with top talents from different countries was no easy task. We had to quickly understand and grasp the different business and tax environment across the countries.”
As for Angelina Tai Fern Jian, she was more than happy to say that her lecturers prepared them well. “Our lecturers gave us technical articles to read, showed us illustrative videos to learn from as the tax issues were technically heavy.”
Thiban, on the other hand, spoke about the elevation of his appreciation for the tax profession after the competition. “I have fallen in love with taxation even more. In this ever-changing business environment, I am now able to view taxation from a different perspective and this has enhanced my analytical skills and enabled me to come up with more efficient and effective measures in tax planning.”
The four students had different and positive reasons about how this win would help them in their career. All of them unanimously agreed that they are now better able to cope with delivery of results within a given deadline, better time management skills when under pressure, become more confident and initiative in doing their own research on tax issues and also improve on their presentation skills.
Congratulations to all four winners, for having been crowned champion even at the regional level!
