BCA JOURNAL @50 – HISTORY OF THE LAST 10 YEARS

The
Bombay Chartered Accountant Journal (BCAJ) is the only offering of the the
Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (BCAS) that reaches members and
subscribers every month. Contributed entirely by volunteers, it has been doing
so for the past fifty years. From the days of cyclostyled bulletins in 1950 to
bi-monthly printed bulletins as a source of Tribunal decisions in 1962 to the
first printed and bound Journal in 1969 of 40 pages at a subscription of Rs.
18/year, the BCAJ has blazed the trail over these fifty years.

History
of the first forty years of the BCAJ was published in the July 2009 (40^th
Year of the BCAJ) by the then Editor Gautam Nayak. In the same vein, this piece
seeks to give a snapshot of the last ten years.

THE FIFTH DECADE
(2009-10 TO 2018-19)

This
decade saw four Editors – Gautam Nayak (till July, 2010), Sanjeev R. Pandit
(2010-11 to 2012-13)  Anil J. Sathe (2013-14 to 2016-17) and this writer since July, 2017.

This
decade saw numerous and frequent changes. It saw amendments to company law in
the aftermath of Satyam fraud, settling down of VAT regimes across India and
end of State Sales Tax, XBRL, Citizens Charter by the tax department,
establishing of Income tax Ombudsman, strengthening of RTI, proliferation of
ERPs, Vodafone dispute and retrospective amendments, thrust on Corporate
Governance, FCRA amendments, increasing size of service tax law, Digital
Certification, Cloud Computing, focus on family-managed companies in a
globalising economy, Stock Options, Companies Act revamp and a new 2013 Act,
Transfer Pricing, CAs practising under LLP, Competition Law, FATCA and CRS,
BEPS, NCAS, AAR, GAAR, CSR, Ind AS, IBC, GST, NFRA and such other changes.

New features

New
features that were started in this decade included Risk containing case
studies by Dr. Vishnu Kanhere from May, 2009. It contained practical content,
as risk management was the buzz word. SAP and Fraud was written by
Chetan Dalal from October, 2009, which was an extension of his earlier series
on fraud detection. This was to arm the CAs with tools to use in an ERP
environment. Auditing Standards by Bhavesh Dhupelia and Shabbir
Readymadewala highlighted important points of the revised standards on auditing
and their practical impact. In 2009-10, BCAJ started a feature called Indirect
Taxes – Recent Decisions penned by Bakul Modi and Puloma Dalal. In
2012-13 – Ethics and You penned by C. N. Vaze was started to address the
need to keep the focus on ethics in a light yet effective manner. A new feature
Student Forum with a view to encourage the next generation was started
with contributions from students. With opening up of the economy, more global
reporting and the imminence of IFRS coming to India – Jamil Khatri and Akeel
Master wrote regularly in a feature titled IFRS. A column to cover
building blocks of the evolving GST law was started under the title Decoding
GST by Sunil B. Gabhawalla, Rishabh Sanghvi and Parth Shah. Statistically
Speaking was introduced to draw attention to some key indicators with Parth
Shah and Akshata Kapadia as first compilers. In July, 2018, a bi-monthly series
Tech Mantra was started with Yazdi Tantra as its contributor. FEMA
Focus was started in October, 2018 to bring out brief analysis of changes
in foreign exchange law including compounding orders authored by Bhaumik Goda
and Saumya Sheth. All other features such as Tribunal News, In the High Courts,
From Published Accounts, VAT and others continued as usual.

Articles

The
articles that appeared showcased burning issues of the times. Rotation of
Auditors in the aftermath of Satyam fraud by P. N. Shah; articles on Female
Rights in HUF by M. L. Bhakta; articles on IPR laws by Aditya Thakkar are few
of the examples. A series of six articles on M&A was contributed by Krishna
Chaturvedi and Vijay Iyer as M&A was the flavour of the time. A series on
Transfer Pricing was also carried out considering its increasing importance.
Family-managed companies going the professional way and double-dip recession by
Rajaram Ajgaonkar; Lawyers Duties and Accountability by Senior Advocate S. E.
Dastur brought about matters beyond the regular tax and audit subjects.
Articles by Sriraman Parthasarthy on audit were especially noteworthy, as they
covered contemporary issues with usable content. N. M. Ranka wrote a series
articles titled Rules of Interpretation of Tax Statutes. Building the Firm of
the Future by Dr. Lee Fredericksen was an especially admired article giving
numerous graphical data points.

The
young Shantanu Gawade, age 14 years, spoke at BCAS and his talk on “Ethical
Hacking and Cybercrimes” was published in the form of a report in the December,
2011 issue.

Editorials and Other Content

Editorials
continued to speak objectively, emphatically, and fearlessly. A number of
cartoons were brought out during this decade too – depicting what words couldn’t
have. Every feature writer and President – whether writing their monthly page
or digesting cases or giving commentary on cases or laws – did so with purpose
and passion, some summarising, others detailing or analysing – each one doing
it with exactitude and calibre.

Digital Push: BCAJONLINE.ORG

Reading
a professional journal in print format has remained in vogue. However, a
digital platform has its own benefits. A CD containing Journals from 2000 to
2011 was brought out earlier. A web version was thought imperative. The Journal
got its dedicated website in April, 2014, containing full text of all journals
published since the year 2000. This facilitated search of the Journals for
specific topics or authors or articles. A flip book version was also started in
April, 2017.

Printer

BCAJ
was printed since 1970 by Vijay Mudran run by Madhav Kanitkar, who after 40
years of association with the BCAS was not only a well wisher but also
complemented the editor with his observations. He would make numerous
suggestions and took great care of the BCAJ. In February, 2010 BCAJ switched to
Spenta Multimedia when Vijay Mudran suddenly discontinued their operations.
Along with the change of the printer BCAJ reviewed its font size, cover page,
and structure to ensure that these were contemporary and more reader friendly.

Interviews

The
July, 2010 Annual Special Issue carried an interview of Justice Ajit P. Shah
pertaining to law and the legal system and challenges before the judiciary such
as judicial appointments, tribunalisation, arbitration and mediation, RTI, and
the criminal justice system. The July, 2012 Annual Special Issue covered an
interview of film star Anupam Kher, who shared his professional journey and
lessons learnt along the way. The golden jubilee year 2018-19 saw six
interviews described later.

GST

As the
advent of GST was becoming imminent, numerous articles around model GST law to
GST/VAT in other countries were brought out. Welcome GST articles carried the
theme to bring readers abreast with the grandest tax change India was to see.

July,
2017 marked the arrival of Goods and Services Tax. BCAJ decided to carry its
Annual July Special Issue containing 21 Articles on GST without any of the
regular features. This was perhaps done only once earlier in 1993. More than
19,000 copies (including normal subscription) of this Special Issue were
printed and several subscribers booked additional copies in advance. The issue
was released at the hands of the Hon. Union Cabinet Minister Piyush Goyal, a Chartered
Accountant. This was the highest circulation number of the Journal.

Surveys

A
survey on Practice Management was conducted in October, 2015, on a number of
data points of fee scales, billable hours, gross fees, profit per partner,
etc., comparing these with similar figures in the USA. This was perhaps the
first one of its kind in the Journal. Another survey was conducted on Practice
Management in August, 2018 and the results printed in September, 2018. BCAJ
also carried out a Survey on BCAJ itself, to obtain data points on reader
expectations in January, 2018. 95% of respondents answered YES to the question
on satisfaction with overall coverage of topics. 50.5% respondents spent more
than two hours reading the journal every month. Heartening indeed!

Subscription

The
BCAJ cover price has remained the same in all the 10 years: Rs. 1200 per year
or Rs. 100 per copy. This was nothing short of remarkable. This is possible
solely because of consistent voluntary contributions by several professionals
over the years. Members and readers have always remained the centre point and
focus of the Journal. 

Losses

In
these ten years, BCAJ lost its biggest supporters: past editor Bhupendra V.
Dalal (2014), publisher Narayan K. Varma (2015) and contributor to 50 plus
Namaskaars Pradeep A. Shah (2017).

Books developed from BCAJ
content

The
BCAJ churns out vast amounts of content. Four books took shape out of the BCAJ
articles series – “Laws and Business” (by Anup P. Shah), “Novel and
Conventional Methods of Audit, Investigation and Fraud Detection” (by Chetan
Dalal), Namaskaar ki Bhet (in two parts in 2011 and 2015) and an E book “Rules
of Interpretation of Tax Statutes” (by N. M. Ranka).

Annual special issues, best article & best feature awards

Golden year – 2018-19

Unlike
in the past, special content was featured all through the year as GOLDEN
CONTENTS. BCAJ interviewed eminent professionals Y. H. Malegam and Zia Mody;
investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala; Tata Group Director Ishaat Hussain, tech
entrepreneur N. R. Narayana Murthy and the leadership of Institute of Internal
Auditors, Naohiro Mouri and Richard Chambers. Volume 50 carried 6 interviews,
31 Special Articles, 6 View and Counterview, a survey, Kaleidoscope on CAs,
Spoof, Blast from the Past and this article on history under the Golden
Contents. Articles ranged from Succession, Audit, Investments, Insolvency Law,
GST, CSR, musings, to auditor resignations amongst others. The Survey on
Practice Management ranked key challenges faced by practitioners. View and
Counterviews brought out two sides of current topics such as NFRA, Fair Value
Accounting, etc.

BCAJ
will publish a Digital version of the entire Golden Contents in the free access
section of the website – to commemorate the fabulous fifty years.

Spirit of BCAJ: Volunteering

The
Journal is run on a pro bono basis by professionals committed to the
cause of BCAS by volunteering to share their knowledge with their fraternity.
The Journal Committee is the only committee of the BCAS that meets every month
to review the Journal and to brainstorm and review the content. The Editorial
Board meets quarterly or more to review policies and larger themes. The yearly
Marathon Meeting of all feature writers of the Journal is generally held in
January to review yearly statistics and analysis and to give a critique on the year
gone by. As you will read in the following pages, people have been contributors
for 10-15-20 to over 30 years sharing knowledge and giving time, month on
month, year on year. We salute them all!