Basit Ahmad

Tax Manager Pakistan
Pakistan & Afghanistan Region 

Basit’s role in The Coca-Cola Company is to make identification and mitigation of strategic tax risks; establishing processes to ensure sustainable compliance with local tax/custom regulations at one end and compliance of foreign tax jurisdictions on the other side. Close co-ordination is obligatory with regional operations (BU-MENA) and production plant (CPS) for supporting Custom issues at imports, export stage. Moreover, he is working closely with Corporate Tax in Atlanta-USA on strategic matters like transfer of funds, managing transfer pricing risks and implementation of policies and tax planning procedures/audits. Apart from expertise in local & international reporting, Basit has valuable understanding in the field of transfer pricing control and execution.

I joined Coca-Cola Company in….2003 in finance department of Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan .I was promoted as a Tax Manager in 2007. In the year 2012, I have been offered in TCCEC-PB to establish the tax function, I was able to accelerate my career path due to strong knowledge base and networking within the Company which allowed me to understand the mechanics of each department.

Before joining Coca-Cola….I completed my Bachelors from Hailey College (1991-1994) and then I joined a professional firm of Chartered accountants for the mandatory professional training of four years with the firm.

In 1999, I got rich experience on project of World Bank where I was working as management consultant, I believe that education facilitates professionalism.

 My interests are…to swim, read poetry and to play golf. When I was young I really wanted to become a poet but when I started my Bachelors, my interest started to develop into accountancy because my parents motivated me to choose some stable career path. At that time I utterly wanted to become a successful professional Accountant but still I love to read Mirza Ghalib’s poetry for leisure.  

Coca-Cola for me…is a beacon of hope and my dream company, with a strong brand equity. I discovered Coca-Cola as the best company to work with because of its strong corporate culture, brand dynasty, speculative marketing and of course the ‘Red’ colour; which is quite fascinating, attractive and mesmerizing. Basically, Coca-Cola has developed such a strong affiliation with customers that people dream to work here.

My advice to young professionals…is to learn how to work hard and smartly because as technology is stimulating innovation at an exponential rate, the corporate set up is also on a boom. So along with hard work you have to be innovative, intelligent and motivated. To all the young professionals; whatever you do, do, do it whole heartedly and give your best always. You cannot really expect shortcuts to success, because true success is earned with willingness to perform better each day at work.