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. Uday 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. Mayur
Nayak, Past President of BCAS. CA. T. P. Ostwal answered issues
raised by members during Group Discussion on his paper titled Case Studies
on Recent 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. Raman Jokhakar, Past President of BCAS. CA.
Himanshu 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. Madhukar Hiregange presented paper titled Role &
Responsibilities 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 Revision
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. Manoharan, Past President of ICAI and Guest of Honour Mr. Nilesh
Vikamsey, Vice 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 Marfatia, CA. Govind Goyal & CA. Rajesh 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. Uday 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.
Past Presidents and Office Bearers at 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. Manoharan. 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. Uday 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.
Seminar Committee and Office Bearers at GJRRC
