Golden Jubilee Residential Refresher Course (GJRRC) of
Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (BCAS) was held
at ITC Rajputana Palace Hotel, Jaipur from 19th January
2017 to 22nd January 2017. In all, 278 members from 40
cities of India participated to witness this Golden Event.
On the First day, CA. Chetan Shah, President BCAS
welcomed the participants of GJRRC. He introduced CA.
Pinakin Desai, Past President of BCAS who enriched
many members with his profound knowledge and has
presented 28 papers in RRCs. He acknowledged the
efforts of Seminar Committee for raising number of
participants from 225 to 270 to accommodate maximum
members. He highlighted the VISION of the Society to
make optimum use of technology and innovation to reach
out to members across India. He also informed that BCAS
has been selected to impart training on GST with NACEN,
as an “Accredited Training Partner” to the Government of
India.
CA. U day Sathaye, Chairman Seminar Committee
welcomed everybody and explained the importance of
RRCs. He compared RRC to a Guru. He acknowledged
contribution of Paper writers, Group Leaders and Members
in making RRCs a success and highlighted the relationship
that has been developed over many years particularly with
participants from cities other than Mumbai. He appreciated
the response from outstation members which is increasing
every year. He also shared his thoughts about CA. Pinakin
Desai’s contribution in RRCs.
CA. Pinakin Desai, Past President of BCAS inaugurated
GJRRC. He mentioned that in the past, Group Discussion
alone used to expose what is happening around. Now
the scenario has changed. There is a change in subjects,
method of Auditing and Complex Laws are in force. It has
become a necessity that professionals must be techno
savvy. Tax department is tightening the controls, resulting
in the task of professionals becoming difficult. Compliance
of tax laws is becoming burdensome. He concluded with
a clear message that there is a need to be updated on
every front in profession including technology.
The first technical session was chaired by CA. M ayur
Nayak, Past President of BCAS. CA. T. P. Ostwal
answered issues raised by members during Group
Discussion on his paper titled Case Studies on R ecent
Developments and Issues in Cross border Taxation.
In his inimitable style covering day to day issues in the fields
of Equalization Levy, Transfer Pricing, Indirect Transfers,
Residential Status, Place of Effective Management and
Taxability of the Overseas Dividends in the hands of the
Indian shareholders, he dealt with the questions raised
in the case studies along with issues communicated by
group leaders and provided solutions to the problems.
On the Second day, 20th January, 2nd technical session
was chaired by CA. R aman Jokhakar, Past President of
BCAS. CA. H imanshu Kishnadwala presented paper
titled Ind-AS Implementation Issues.
The speaker after initially giving a background on
applicability of IndAS in India and carve-outs from IFRS,
dealt with some issues on IndAS implementation faced
by Phase I companies. He also covered the notification
issued by MCA for companies not covered under IndAS
and who need to follow the ‘upgraded’ standards from 1st
April 2016 onwards.
The Third technical session was chaired by CA. Ashok
Dhere, Past President of BCAS. CA. Pinakin Desai
answered issues raised by members during Group
Discussion on his paper titled Significant Recent
Controversies/Developments under the Income Tax Act –
Case Studies.
The paper writer in his inimitable style explained the various
nuances in interpretation of tax laws. The case studies
were extremely relevant in everyday practice, and the
presentation was extremely useful to all the participants.
In all, the paper as well as the lucid explanations of the
paper writer, was a rich and rewarding experience for the
delegates.
In the evening, all participants visited Chokhi Dhani,
a theme village resort in the outskirts of Jaipur city.
Everybody enjoyed the activities in Chokhi Dhani followed
by sumptuous and tasty Rajasthani dinner. It was really a
memorable evening.
On the Third day, 21st January, the fourth technical session
was chaired by CA. Govind Goyal, Past President of
BCAS. CA. M adhukar H iregange presented paper titled
Role & R esponsibilities of CAs in GST Regime.
He enlightened the participants on the opportunities
available to the chartered accountants in the pre and
post implementation of GST, in the fields like Operational
Consultancy, Network Support and Infrastructure,
Accounting, Compliance, Transitional Support including
Audits/Assurance areas. He felt that Chartered
Accountants are in a better position to assess the impact
of GST on their clients. He enlightened the members
as regards various efforts and initiatives taken by ICAI
by contributing in the law making process. He said this
is a Golden Opportunity for professionals by tracking
development at Industry level and creating awareness by
advising their clients.
The Fifth technical session was chaired by CA. Anil
Sathe, Past President of BCAS. CA. Saurabh Soparkar
answered issues raised by members during Group
Discussion on his paper titled Re-opening and R evision
of Assessments.
The learned speaker, through various case studies,
explained that while the assessment was a concept that
was not new to tax practitioners, it had attained significant
importance in the last decade. He mentioned that earlier,
assessments were the norm and reassessments were
an exception. However in the recent past, the Income
tax Department embarked on reassessments in a large
number of cases, either on account of the scrutiny being
inadequate at the time of assessment or on account of
receipt of information, post-assessment. Judicial forums,
particularly the high Courts and the apex court, looked at
reassessments very seriously and unless the threshold
conditions were satisfied, did not permit the Department
to have a second innings. The Speaker mesmerised
the audience with his command over the subject. His
analysis of the various judicial pronouncements was also
extremely useful.
Golden Jubilee Function
On 21st evening, everyone was waiting eagerly for the
special celebration of the Golden Jubilee RRC. The
function was organised in a different way this year as
compared to similar evening functions at the RRCs in
the past. CA. Nandita Parekh & CA. Ameet Patel, past
president of the BCAS jointly compered the event. They
began by welcoming the Chief Guest Mr. T. N. M anoharan,
Past President of ICAI and Guest of H onour M r. Nilesh
Vikamsey, V ice President of ICAI. Both the guests
addressed the gathering. Mr Manoharan spoke about
his experiences at the past RRCs and he also spoke
about the special qualities of the RRCs organised by the
BCAS. He also spoke about the role played by bodies like
BCAS in the development of the CA profession. Mr Nilesh
Vikamsey too complimented the BCAS on the golden
jubilee of the RRC. He spoke about the recent initiatives
taken by the ICAI for its members. He also cautioned the
delegates about the threat of disruption that technology is
likely to cause amongst the professionals in the country.
He also gave examples of how the ICAI has quickly
responded to the expectations from the Government on
various fronts. Both the guests set the right tone for a
memorable celebration of the GJRRC.
Thereafter, the past chairmen of the Seminar Committee –
CA. Pranay M arfatia, CA. Govind Goyal & CA. R ajesh
S. Shah were felicitated for their contribution to the
RRC. The delegates also remembered the contribution
of Nayan Parikh, another past chairman who could not
remain present on account of health reasons. Rajeev
Shah, convenor of the committee was felicitated for being
a convenor of the committee for 10 years. Vice President
of the Society CA. Narayan Pasari presented his views.
CA. U day Sathaye, Chairman, Seminar Committee was
then felicitated for his contribution in all RRCs. He has
been chairman for 10 RRCs including GJRRC which is the
highest number of chairmanship of Seminar Committee.
He mentioned that the members of the Seminar
Committee take each RRC as a separate programme with
a mission and challenge. He elaborated that the success
of RRCs is achieved with effective Team Management,
Planning, Assessment of Risk, Crisis Management and
Negotiation skills. He gave many examples from earlier
RRCs where members of the Seminar Committee have
overcome various difficulties to provide comfort to the
participants. He acknowledged valuable support of all
previous chairmen of seminar committee namely Late
CA. Shailesh Kapadia, CA. Nayan Parikh, CA. Pranay
Marfatia, CA. Govind Goyal and CA. Rajesh Shah. All
of them had always provided guidance and had actively
participated in all RRCs. He also highlighted the changing face of RRC over last 30 years
in terms of Group Discussion,
Participation of Members
etc. He concluded his views
on a positive note that this
wonderful relationship will
continue with the support of
the members attending RRCs
in future.
Thereafter, several members
were called upon to share their
experiences of the past RRCs.
Some who had come for the
first time also spoke about
their experience of the GJRRC.
The event was made all the more memorable by an Army
Band which marched into the hall in full splendour and
performed some tunes which were enjoyed by all. The
delegates were awed by the ceremonial band.
The event was interspersed with humour and wit and all
the delegates had an enjoyable time.
This celebration function was very ably hosted by CA.
Nandita Parekh and CA. Ameet Patel, Past President of
BCAS.
The finale of the GJRRC was the Panel Discussion on
last day i.e. 22nd January. This was the first time that such
a session was held at the RRC. The experiment was
highly successful. The session was chaired by CA. T.
N. M anoharan. The panelists were CA. Pradip Kapasi,
Past President of BCAS, CA. Gautam Doshi, Past
Chairman of WIRC of ICAI, CA. Dinesh Kanabar and
CA. Sunil Gabhawalla, Joint Secretary of BCAS. The
discussion was moderated by CA. Shariq Contractor,
Past President of BCAS and CA. Jayant Gokhale, Past
Central Council member of ICAI.
The panelists discussed five case studies which covered a
wide range of topics. The large number of issues from the
field of Accounting, Direct Tax, Indirect Tax, International
Tax, FEMA, Stamp Duty etc. were covered extensively by
the panelists.
In the concluding session, CA. U day Sathaye, Chairman
Seminar Committee and CA. Chetan Shah, President
BCAS thanked everybody for making GJRRC a great
success. GJRRC concluded with a commitment to meet
again next year.
