CORPORATE AND ALLIED LAWS COMMITTEE
“Company Law Conclave – 2019” held on 15th & 16th March, 2019
A two-day Company Law Conclave – 2019 was organised by the Corporate & Allied Laws Committee on 15th & 16th March, 2019 at Hotel Orchid, Mumbai, with distinguished speakers and panellists sharing their in-depth knowledge and experience on the subject. President CA. Sunil Gabhawalla gave the inaugural remarks, followed by opening comments from the Chairman of the Corporate and Allied Laws Committee, CA. Chetan Shah.
CA. Nilesh Vikamsey, Past President of ICAI, delivered the keynote address and highlighted the journey of various amendments in the short period since the enactment of the Companies Act, 2013 including a statistical analysis thereof; he also highlighted the challenges faced, especially by professionals, in various compliances thereunder.
The first technical session was taken up by CA. Bhavesh Vora who dealt with the topic Significant Beneficial Ownership (SBO). He explained the difference between registered owner and beneficial owner, stages of Money-laundering leading to the rationale behind the introduction of SBO declarations, the applicability and non-applicability of SBO declarations, etc. He also gave valuable insights on provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 relating to Acceptance of Deposits and Dematerialisation of Shares and touched upon the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 which was promulgated on 21st February, 2019.
The second session was a panel discussion on Recent Trends of actions from Regulators such as SEBI, Stock Exchanges and MCA with respect to Audit Committees, Auditors and Directors, including Independent Directors. The esteemed panellists were CA. Shailesh Haribhakti, CA. Dolphy D’Souza and CA. Bhavesh Vora. The session was ably moderated by CA. Sandeep Shah who made the proceedings informative and interesting.
In the third session, CA. Manish Sampat, Vice President, BCAS, explained the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 relating to Loans and Investments, Borrowings, Related Party Transactions and Foreign Companies – establishing liaison/project/branch office in India and shared his practical experience. He also gave a brief overview of FEMA provisions.
Thereafter, Mr. Amit Tandon apprised the participants about the Dawn of proxy/voting advisory firms in India and corporate governance trends evolving in India. He expressed the view that shareholder engagement had been increasing in India in the recent past and shared specific examples of how effective shareholders’ engagement had resulted in not allowing the Board to have its own way.
In the last session on Day 1, CA. Avil Menezes dealt with Corporate Insolvency (winding up) in IBC Era. He explained the liquidation process under the IBC and responded to several queries of the participants in this regard.
Day 2 began with the session on Accounts, Audit and CSR’ under the Companies Act, 2013 by CA. Himanshu Kishnadwala. He elaborated the financial statements – AS and Ind AS, reopening of financial statements, declaration of dividend, NFRA and CSR provisions applicable to the companies, and shared insights on audit and auditors’ responsibilities and other services that can be rendered by the auditor/its affiliate or associate.
This was followed by a panel discussion on Role & Responsibilities of Directors, Conflicts of Interest other than related party transactions and Directors’ Potential Liabilities in Insolvency. The distinguished panellists, viz., CS. Shailesh Rajadhyaksha, CA. Uday Chitale and Adv. Bharat Vasani, shared their views and rich experience. Adv. Bharat Vasani, with his legal background, threw light on the Directors’ responsibilities and liabilities under the Companies Act as well as some other laws. The session was ably moderated by CA. Nawshir Mirza who made the interaction more educative and effective.
Thereafter, the session on Schemes of Compromises, Arrangements and Amalgamations – Procedural aspects was taken up by Adv. Bhumika Batra. She, inter alia, covered the benefits, governing statutes and various stages of schemes of compromise and arrangements. The concluding session on Day 2 was taken up by CS B. Renganathan on Schemes of Compromises, Arrangements and Amalgamations – Some Peculiar Illustrations. He discussed some of the path-breaking schemes of compromises and arrangements.
The event garnered good response and saw attendance from outstation participants from various cities. Overall, the Company Law Conclave was an enriching experience for the participants.
Training Session on “Practical Aspects of Bank Audit from Article’s Perspective” held on 22nd March 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The Students’ Forum under the auspices of the HRD Committee organised a training session on the above-mentioned topic on 22nd March, 2019 in the BCAS Conference Hall which was led by CA. Pankaj Tiwari, a proficient speaker on the subject. Ms. Divya Jadav, the student co-ordinator, introduced him to the participants. She was followed by CA. Jigar Shah, HRD Committee member, who also addressed the students.
CA Pankaj Tiwari spoke about the current banking scenario and briefed the students on various recent circulars issued by the RBI. He covered several issues and aspects which needed to be looked into by the article students while conducting a bank audit. He meticulously explained the issues involved through case studies and practical examples; he gave useful tips to the article students on how to effectively conduct Bank Audit and provided a checklist of the critical areas to be focused upon.
The training session ended with Mr. Jason Joseph, student co-ordinator, proposing the vote of thanks to the speaker for sparing his valuable time and the audience for participating in huge numbers. With the “Bank Audit season” round the corner, the topic had its own importance which could be easily seen by the tremendous response received from the students. Overall, the session was very informative and the participants benefited a lot from it.
ITF STUDY CIRCLE
Study Circle on “Agency PE – Analysis of Amendment under the Act and MLI” held on 25th March, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The ITF Study Circle organised a meeting on Agency PE – Analysis of Amendment under the Act and MLI on 25th March, 2019 in the BCAS Conference Hall. It was led by the Group Leader, CA. Kartik Badiani who took the members through the various provisions of Article 12 of the Multilateral Instrument relating to the measures for preventing avoidance of a permanent establishment. He explained the commissionaire arrangement and why it is not very relevant in the Indian context.
CA. Kartik Badiani also described the expanded scope of the agency PE arising out of the new provisions, especially regarding activities of dependent agents in respect of contracts for the transfer of the ownership of, or for the granting of the right to use property owned by that enterprise, or that the enterprise has the right to use for the provision of services by that enterprise.
He then compared the MLI provisions with the newly-substituted Explanation 2(a) to section 9(1)(i) of the Income-tax Act. The scope of the substituted explanation and its applicability to purchasing activities for export or otherwise was also discussed.
The meeting was very interactive and presented a huge takeaway for the participants.
Lecture Meeting on “The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019” held on 28th March, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society organised a lecture meeting on ‘The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019’ on 28th March, 2019 in the BCAS Conference Hall which was addressed by CA. Sandeep Shah.
CA. Sandeep discussed the background of the Ordinance and its applicability and then covered key definitions, the genesis, salient features, administration and challenges and confusion, as also the offences under it. He touched upon the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999 to put forth his views. He also talked about the types of schemes such as “Ponzy” and “Pyramid Schemes” and explained the applicability and the exemptions under the Ordinance. He described the characteristics of regulated and unregulated deposit schemes and the offences covered by the Ordinance, i.e., inducement and punishment, etc., thereof.
Thereafter, the speaker described the challenges and confusions faced in implementing the Ordinance and the administrative aspects and penalties imposed for indulging in contravention of the Ordinance, including imprisonment, fines, etc. He also outlined and emphasised the role of an auditor in stricter compliance of the Ordinance and the consequences of non-compliance with laws and regulations of the Ordinance.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session in which the participants raised queries which were emphatically answered by the learned speaker. The participants were enlightened with the interesting and important developments in the financial domain which were effectively explained by the speaker, CA. Sandeep Shah.
“Blood Donation Drive” organised on 29th March, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
BCAS continues with its initiative of connecting with and contributing to the society at large for a non-professional cause. Its blood donation drive encourages a sense of “Personal Social Responsibility” (PSR) among its members, their relatives and friends.
The BCAS Foundation, along with the Seminar and Membership Development (SMD) Committee, organised its 3rd Blood Donation Drive on 29th March, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall in collaboration with Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), one of the renowned hospitals in Mumbai with its sophisticated blood bank facilities. TMH also provided a knowledge desk for platelet donation for the benefit of members and for creating awareness about the basics of platelet donation.
Awareness and messages were widely spread by the BCAS team for the drive, especially in all the offices, educational institutions and government offices in and around the New Marine Lines area. CA. Sunil Gabhawalla, President, BCAS, and CA. Narayan Pasari, Chairman, SMD Committee, led the drive along with some committee members and encouraged and inspired many people to become donors.
For the blood donation, the donors had to follow a step-by-step procedure covering various parameters before actually donating blood. The specialised team of doctors and supervisors from TMH was very careful with regard to the health and physical condition of the donors to ensure that he/she was fit for donating blood and also completely fit and fine after donating blood.
The donors were given Blood Donation Certificates by TMH and BCAS along with a token gift in appreciation of their participation. BCAS received an overwhelming response to the drive and TMH officials were very happy with the units of blood collected.
It was a great team effort by the 12 volunteers from TMH, the coordinators of the event from the SMD Committee, CA. Sohail Kapasi, CA. Maitri Ahuja and CA. Yogesh Patel, along with other members of the BCAS and the BCAS staff who actively extended their support. It was indeed a memorable experience through which BCAS gave an opportunity to inculcate/nurture a sense of PSR amongst members as well as non-members.
(Note: PSR can be called a “twin sister” of CSR which stands for “Corporate Social Responsibility”.)
BCAS TECH SUMMIT 2019 HELD ON 30th MARCH, 2019
The Technology Initiatives Committee of the BCAS organised the 1st BCAS Tech Summit 2019 on 30th March, 2019 at Courtyard by Marriott. The event commenced with an inaugural address by President CA. Sunil Gabhawalla, followed by the opening address by CA. Nitin Shingala, the Chairman of the Committee.
The keynote address was delivered by CA. Deepak Ghaisas, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Gencoval Group, and Vice-Chairman, i-flex Solutions. He highlighted the technological trends affecting different sectors and how each trend is an enabler for a chartered accountant to expand his practice.
The panel discussion on Accounting Softwares was led by the moderator, CA. Shariq Contractor. The participants included Ms. Aditi Puri Batra, Intuit, CA. Harsh Vardhan Dawar and CA. Prashant Gupta. The panel discussed the current requirements of the clients and ways to identify accounting software that meets a client’s needs. They also discussed the tools integrated with accounting software that would enable customisation of information. In addition, the panel highlighted transformation in the accounting software with cloud-based accounting applications.
CA. Ameet Patel led the panel discussion on Tax & Compliance Software. The panellists were CA. Raj Mullick, Reliance Industries, CA. Harit Gandhi, TCS, Mr. Rakesh Dube and Mr. Vijaya Mankaragod. While CA. Raj Mullick shared his journey of adapting to technologies to manage GST compliance, CA. Harit Gandhi spoke about developing technologies for GST and VAT compliance and offered his insights into the proposed changes in GST compliance.
Mr. Vijaya Mankaragod highlighted the practices adopted by developed countries in digitising taxation and how Indian tax administration is adapting to these changes. He described the big data analytics being adapted by tax administrations across the world and shared his views on future trends that would drive the taxation sector. Mr. Rakesh Dube, on the other hand, explained the need for having a tax compliance software that worked well with the ERPs to ensure timely compliance with various tax laws. CA. Ameet Patel made the session lively with his wit and humour.
The panel discussion on HR, Payroll & Labour Law compliance software was led by CA. Nitin Shingala, Chairman of the Technology Initiatives Committee himself, and those who took part in it were Mr. Madhu Damodaran, CA. Harish Chopra and Mr. Girish Rowjee.
CA. Nitin initiated the discussion with the current scenario impacting payroll management as nobody could go without pay day except when grounded. Mr. Madhu Damodaran shared his experiences in administering complex HR processes and ensuring employment law compliance through setting up businesses/processes/vendor management systems. CA. Harish Chopra and Mr. Girish Rowjee highlighted trends in payroll accounting and management, future opportunities available and shared tips on how to grow HR and payroll practices.
Another panel discussion, on Practice Management — Leveraging Digital Technologies for Accelerated Growth, was led by CA. Vaibhav Manek. The panellists included CA. Rajeev Sharma, Mr. Suresh Kumar and Mr. Kris Agarwala, Wolters Kluwer. They discussed the trends driving practice management by CA firms and the use of software and applications to ensure efficiency, productivity and training of the employees, when partners can focus on client management.
The session on Robotics Process Automation (RPA) was jointly led by Mr. Ashish Sharma and Mr. Prasad Godbole. They introduced participants to the future trend of robotic accounting and explained how robots can undertake end-to-end transaction processing. The future opportunities available in such a scenario were also highlighted; the case studies and examples discussed by them kept the audience engrossed.
The venue of the 1st BCAS Tech Summit 2019 also featured an exhibition section with product demonstration by Wolters Kluwer, Intuit — Quickbooks, Reliance Jio, TCS IoN, Clear Tax, Firmway, Greytip, Tax Genie and Kredence Digital, all of which opened new vistas for the participants at the event.
The sharing of insights and experiences by the experts, and also the interactions during the networking breaks brought a sense of wonder and created some unforgettable memories of the 1st BCAS Tech Summit 2019.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Human Development Study Circle meeting on “Vidur Niti from Mahabharata” held on 9th April, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The Human Development Study Circle organised an interesting discussion on “Vidur Niti (containing the lessons of wisdom narrated by Vidur to Dhrutrashtra before Mahabharta War) on 9th April, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall which was presented by CA. C. N. Vaze. The Speaker talked about some important teachings in relation to human behaviour i.e. Sandhi (Joining), Vigraha (Disconnect), Yana (Aggression), Asana (Sit on compound – non-aligned) and Dwaidhibhav (create dilemma) and also sources of happiness such as to stay healthy, fearless, debt free, in company of good people, be professional and do justice to the profession etc.
Vidur was one of the most respected gurus in the Kingdom of Hastinapur. He had vowed allegiance to the throne (and not to the person occupying it), as a result of which he had to face a lot of hardships when things started going wrong in the kingdom. Before and during the period of the Mahabharata war, he continued to live in Hastinapur – but he did not eat even a single morsel of food from the King’s kitchen. For his consumption, he grew his own grains, fruits and vegetables because he did not want to be contaminated by consuming food served by the “evil” forces that were ruling the land and the ill wind that was blowing over it. He lived by himself and was always willing to give advice in the court – but there was hardly anyone to listen to him. It was his disciples who noted down his sermons and came up with what is called “Vidur Niti”.
It was an extremely interesting session and the participants learned about several hitherto unknown aspects of the respected sage, seer and guru, Vidur.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Full-Day Workshopon “Effective Leadership and Executive Presence” held on 13th April, 2019 at the BCAS Conference Hall
The HRD Committee organised a full-day workshop for enhancing executive gravitas and developing better leadership acumen. It was conducted by the young and dynamic CA. Mudit Yadav who is a skilled and internationally-certified success coach.
He stressed on the following 4 modules:
(1) How a leader can motivate his team by making subtle changes in his vocabulary and leadership style that will inspire his team and hence get more work done.
(2) How to convey feedback in an effective manner that hurts the least but hits the most and thus being able to identify the strengths of the team and balance them with opportunities and team expectations.
(3) How to influence people like successful political leaders, by learning techniques in interpersonal interactions with the team and clients and making effective presentations, speeches and the use of a power vocabulary.
(4) What to wear, how to walk and ways to talk to enhance your presence and thus building respect and reverence in the minds of your colleagues, further addressing the body language, wardrobe and postures that leaders can apply on themselves to build greater presence.
The session was very interactive and the group activities conducted by CA. Mudit Yadav helped the participants to sharpen their skills and take home a valuable lesson at the end of the workshop.
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS STUDY GROUP
International Economics Study Group meeting on “How Foreign-Funded NGOs (Professional Agitators) are Hurting Economic Growth” held on 16th April, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The International Economics Study Group held its meeting on 16th April, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall to discuss “How Foreign-Funded NGOs (Professional Agitators) are Hurting Economic Growth.”
CA. Deepak Karanth led the discussions and presented his thoughts on the subject, describing how concerted efforts by select foreign-funded NGOs ran “rent-an-agitation” stirs to “take down” mega developmental projects in India in order to adversely impact the economic growth of the country.
Thousands of NGOs were involved in genuine social service and health-related activities; they had become part of a wide variety of activities: aid, development, healthcare, education, feminism, the environment, human rights, conscientisation (sic), organisation, etc. But sometime back, the Intelligence Bureau had submitted a report to the PMO suggesting that many foreign-funded NGOs protesting against coal and mining projects in the country were stalling India’s development and had negatively impacted GDP growth by 2 to 3%.
Many such “Professional Agitators” (funded by well-known philanthropies in western countries) had tried to stall large projects. These NGOs had received funds in the form of “research funding”. Cracking the whip on this trend, approximately 20,000 NGOs in the country had been barred from receiving foreign funds by the government following cancellation of their FCRA registrations, said CA. Deepak.
The Intelligence Bureau report said that among the agitations pursuing ”anti-developmental activities” were those that were against nuclear infrastructure development, coal-fired power plants, genetically-modified organisms; Posco in Orissa, Vedanta in Orissa, the Narmada Bachao Andolan; the agitations against extractive industries in the North East and the agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.
CA. Paresh Budhdev led the discussion on the impact of debt defaults arising out of cases like IL&FS on mutual funds’ debt schemes and provident and pension funds (government as well as privately-run employees’ PFs) and the overall debt market.
The meeting was very interactive and participants benefited a lot from the discussion.
