EXPERT CHAT ON INTERNAL AUDIT
An expert online chat on ‘Internal Audit of Indirect Taxation’ was organised jointly by the BCAS and the IIA (Institute of internal Auditors), Mumbai Chapter, on 12th November, 2021. The discussion was moderated by CA Ashutosh Pednekar and also featured CA Sunil Gabhawalla.
The following key matters were deliberated upon during the discussion:
• Should indirect tax be part of the regular scope of internal audit?
• Is there a need to have more awareness about the impact of indirect tax?
• What are the operational, process and control risks to be considered during internal audit of indirect tax?
• What are the anticipated risks in linkages between integrated ERP systems, varied accounting systems and reconciliation between such systems?
• What are the important aspects of GST audit, especially when there is a plethora of documents to be reviewed?
• What kind of complications could arise on account of multiplicity of registration and multiplicity of returns filed by an entity?
• How do internal auditors cope with the complexity of GST law?
• How do internal auditors identify and deal with cases of regulatory violations as internal auditors are required to report cases of fraud, if any, under the Companies Act?
• What’s your view on the massive data points being available in the GST regime and expectations from the internal auditor?
• How can an internal auditor create awareness amongst the Board members on early warning signals on GST-related issues?
The speaker answered all the queries raised by the participants at the end of the meeting.
Online link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRM6BIeYDQA
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SEMINAR ON INPUT CREDIT ISSUES
As it does every year, BCAS conducted a half-day seminar in association with DTPA Kolkata. It was held on 20th November in hybrid mode.
The subject under discussion was ‘GST: Input Credit Issues and Controversies of Direct Tax issues covering Sections 45(4) and 9B’.
Among the learned speakers were past presidents CA Anil Sathe and CA Sunil Gabhawalla. While Anil Sathe dealt with issues covering section 45(4) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, Sunil Gabhawalla covered the controversies in input credit under GST.
BCAS was also represented by President CA Abhay Mehta and Vice-President CA Mihir Sheth. The DTPA Kolkata was represented by its President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary and Conveners, apart from a cross-section of people consisting of chartered accountants, lawyers and tax practitioners. The seminar took place over two sessions, each of which was followed by a Q&A session, with answers being provided by the learned faculties.
KEY ISSUES UNDER SLUMP SALE
A virtual meeting was organised by the Direct Tax Study Circle on 25th November. The meeting discussed the subject ‘Key Issues Under Slump Sale’ and was led by CA Kinjal Bhuta.
Key Speaker Kinjal took members through various Income-Tax provisions relating to slump sale. She explained some of the issues surrounding computation of slump sale gain, net worth, undertaking, permissibility of carry forward of unabsorbed losses and depreciation, etc. To make the session more interactive, she incorporated several case studies. The meeting was a success and concluded with a vote of thanks to the speaker.
CUSTOMS DUTY AND FOREIGN TRADE POLICIES
The IDT Committee of the BCAS, along with the Chamber of Tax Consultants, organised a two-day virtual workshop on ‘Customs Duty and Foreign Trade Policies’ on 26th and 27th November. The programme was divided into four sessions of two hours each and spread over two days.
The speakers at the workshop were Adv. V. Sridharan, Adv. Raghuraman, Adv. Rohit Jain and Mr. Sudhakar Kasture. The following topics were covered:
(a) Levy and chargeability under the Customs Act and procedures for import and export, along with interplay with the GST;
(b) Classification and Scheme of Customs Tariff Act and Principles of Customs Valuation and SVB;
(c) Specific provisions such as bonding, warehousing and other miscellaneous topics, including EOU and SEZ; and
(d) Important concepts under Foreign Trade Policies, various incentive schemes and issues – and bilateral and multilateral agreements.
The session addressed by Adv. V. Sridharan was chaired by President CA Abhay Mehta, while IDT Committee Chairman CA Sunil Gabhawalla gave the concluding remarks.
Adv. Rohit Jain’s session was chaired by IDT Committee Chairman CA Sunil Gabhawalla.
Conveners Dushyant Bhatt, Mandar Telang and Saurabh Shah and Committee Member Suresh Choudhary introduced the speakers / proposed the vote of thanks.
Other introductions / presentations and moving of votes of thanks were done by the Chamber’s representatives.
LECTURE MEETING ON FUTURE PERFECT
An online lecture meeting styled ‘Future Perfect’ was organised on 1st December. It was addressed by Mr. Rahul Bhagat, Business Head, ICICI Prudential Pension Fund Management.
Mr. Bhagat made a crisp presentation on the need for retirement planning with special emphasis on the NPS (National Pension System).
Key takeaways from the presentation were as follows:
• Importance and need for retirement planning,
• Increase in life expectancy,
• Better healthcare at a higher cost,
• Changing demographics,
• Nuclearisation of families.
• How a retirement plan works,
• Accumulation phase,
• Pay-out phase.
• Important factors for choosing a retirement plan.
• Popular options for retirement planning – A comparative analysis of various investment products.
• NPS (National Pension System)
• Concept
• Features
• Benefits
The speaker answered all the queries raised by the members in the course of the meeting, which was attended by over 80 persons.
Online link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvaa0-9HRRs
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EXECUTIVE COACHING FOR BUSINESS LEADERS
The HRD Committee Study Circle held its meeting on 14th December which provided ‘Executive Coaching for Business Leaders’.
The Chairman welcomed the participants, while the Past President introduced the speaker, Mr. Pradip Shroff.
Here are some highlights of the meeting:
• The concept of coaching is new in business, although prevalent in sports.
• Coaching is to tap and unleash potential.
• It’s a super specialisation of HR which calls for good understanding of the business and also a passion to coach.
• Essentials of coaching.
• Good listening.
• Business understanding.
• Empathetic presence and understanding.
• Art of deep probing.
• Summarising.
• Challenging both resistance and denial.
Mr. Pradip Shroff is a senior coach representing the Coaching Foundation of India. Among its
activities is formal training, assignment of hands-on projects, viva and a certification course lasting about ten months.
It provides an excellent opportunity for Chartered Accountants having an analytical background to take up coaching as a career.
The total number of participants was 45. CA Mukesh Trivedi anchored the question-answer session and also proposed the vote of thanks.
FORENSIC ACCOUNTING & INVESTIGATION STUDIES – E-LEARNING COURSE
The Internal Audit Committee of Bombay Chartered Accountant’s Society (BCAS) jointly with Chetan Dalal Investigation & Management Services (CDIMS) launched an e-learning course titled, “Forensic Accounting and Investigation Studies” (FAIS) in December 2020. On the completion of one year from the launch of the course, we are glad to report that in all 61 participants have enrolled for this course, out of which 30 participants have successfully completed it by November 2021 and have been awarded a certificate to that effect.
This course provides unique e-learning for all those professionals in practice, industry or management, finance experts, CA students who are keen to explore a career / specialisation in forensic services or simply want to improve their audit skills by blending ‘Forensics’ and make an exponential difference in their value offerings. The course is designed in 25 Modules of Conceptual & Advanced Knowledge of Forensic Accounting & Fraud Investigation based on case studies, followed by online tests. Delivered through online videos, and the inclusion of case studies make this course engaging and interesting. The e-learning platform provides the opportunity of anytime-anywhere learning. A window of three months is provided to the participants for course completion.
In the course, we have made a few revisions based on the feedback received and our own experiences. We have introduced a demo module for aspiring participants; we now have modular exams in place rather than a single comprehensive exam at the end of the course. The demo module has been uploaded to the BCAS website and can be accessed via an e-mail request to be sent at events@bcasonline.org or through scanning a QR code embedded with login credentials.
The course earlier had an open rolling admission allowing the participants to enrol and start the course at any time. We have now replaced the rolling admissions with quarter admissions at the beginning of the quarter. The window for enrollment of the FAIS course, Batch 1 of 2022, will be kept open from 23rd December 2021 to 21st January 2022 and will require the participants to complete the course by 30th April 2022. To encourage young professionals and students, substantial discounts are being offered to those below 30 years of age as of 1st January 2022. They can visit https://bit.ly/3ehSsVO to avail this offer. Group discounts are also being offered for those enrolling in a group of three or more. They need to contact the BCAS events team at +91 9819955293 or send a request at events@bcasonline.org.
