The 71st
Annual General Meeting of the BCAS was held at the Yogi Sabhagruha, Dadar, on
Tuesday, 9th July, 2019.
The President,
Mr. Sunil Gabhawalla, took the chair and called the meeting to order. All
business as per the agenda contained in the notice was conducted, including
adoption of accounts and appointment of auditors.
Mr. Mihir
Sheth, Hon. Joint Secretary, announced the results of the election of the
President, Vice-President, two Secretaries, Treasurer and eight members of the
Managing Committee for the year 2019-20.
OFFICE-BEARERS
President Mr.
Manish Sampat
Vice-President Mr.
Suhas Paranjpe
Joint Secretary Mr.
Mihir Sheth
Joint Secretary Mr.
Samir Kapadia
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Anil Doshi Chirag
Doshi
Bhavesh Gandhi Divya
Jokhakar
Jagdish Punjabi Rutvik
Sanghvi
Kinjal Shah Mandar
Telang
CO-OPTED MEMBERS
Anand Bathiya Zubin
Billimoria
Vaibhav Manek Hardik
Mehta
Ganesh Rajagopalan Shreyas
Shah
EX-OFFICIO
(Outgoing President) Sunil Gabhawalla
Member (Publisher) Raman
H. Jokhakar
The ‘Jal Erach
Dastur Awards’ for the features and articles appearing in the BCAS Journal
during the year 2018-19 were presented to CA Dolphy D’Souza (Best Feature) and
Ms Priya Sawant (Best Article).
The book,
‘Input Tax Credit Under GST’, authored by CA Darshan Ranavat, was officially
released on the occasion.
Before the
conclusion of the AGM, members, including Past Presidents of the BCAS, were
invited to share their views and observations about the Society.
The Founding Day
lecture was delivered at the end of the formal proceedings of the AGM. It was
an outstanding oration by Mr. Pinakin Desai, the well-known professional who
spoke on the ‘Finance Bill’ before a capacity audience that heard him in
pin-drop silence.
OUTGOING PRESIDENT’S
REPORT
Sunil
Gabhawalla: As I rise
before you for the last time as the President of this esteemed Society, I have
mixed emotions of fulfilment and joy – Fulfilment at having lived a year full
of purpose and the joy of handing over the baton to a worthy Incoming
President, Manish, who also has become a very dear friend during the BCAS
journey.
In my
acceptance speech I had presented the annual plan for BCAS year 2018-19
focussing on the expectations of the common man, which we had identified to be
broadly in four distinct sets – “Re-engineer myProfession”, “Re-kindle
myPassion”, “Re-store myPride” and “Re-juvenate myBCAS”. In alignment with this
annual plan, the Managing Committee and the nine Sub-Committees delivered
around 233 events, 19 publications, 12 editions of the BCAJ, 12 digital assets,
24 representations and countless interactions both in person and online, easily
resulting in an average touch-point of more than one on each working day and
clocking a little over 180,000 hours of education. Before moving ahead, there
is one honest confession to make. At the start of the year, when I gazed
through the crystal ball, I had never imagined that we would achieve this
volume and quality, but the stupendous work undertaken by numerous volunteers
made this possible. My heart is filled with gratitude to each one of them.
Full credit is
due to the Chairmen and Co-Chairmen of the Committees. Totalling 11 in all,
they constituted the Dream World Cup Team which could easily win any match. I
am a strong believer of
the BCAS policy of having a Past President as a Chairman of the Committee. In
my view, it is the key differentiator of the Society as compared to other
organisations. During the year, I have witnessed each of the Chairmen spending
considerable time and energy in the cause of the Society – not only by sharing
the experience and providing balanced perspective, but also through actual
execution. It was not uncommon for a Chairman to even sit down and draft an
announcement. In fact, the eye for minute detail and the commitment of these
personalities brings soul to each event and publication and provides that
impeccable quality, event after event, publication after publication. I request
you all to join hands in acknowledging their role towards the growth of the
Society.
It is now time
to recognise the selfless efforts of the other members of the Core Group – the
Conveners, Course Coordinators and Committee Members. Each of the 43 Committee
/ Sub Committee meetings was full of excitement, ideas and enthusiasm. When the
springboard itself is so strong and the execution thereafter is also flawless,
it is not a surprise that, year after year, the Society, despite stiff
competition and a structural defect of no CPE Credit, surpasses the
achievements of the previous year.
The vision
statement of the Society starts by emphasising that it shall be a
learning-oriented organisation. Content therefore is the key ingredient to such
learning. The faculties, authors, brains trustees, panellists constitute the
nucleus around which the other substance is woven. We need to thank them for
selflessly sparing time out from their busy schedule towards the noble cause of
the Society.
Let me take a
small pause in my thanksgiving endeavour and bring my attention back to the
annual plan. Befitting the theme, we did try to concentrate our energies on the
common man and his four expectations. The sheer volume of the events indicated
earlier presents an impediment in showcasing each one of them. While each of
the events was a precious gem, some initiatives stood out distinctly and it
would not be out of place to revisit some fond memories of such events.
You would all
agree that the profession is passing through very interesting times and needs
re-engineering. The Society continuously held lecture meetings on innovative
topics like ‘the impact of technology on the role of auditors’”, ‘making
internal audit count’, ‘changing risk landscape for audit profession’, ‘AI, ML
and future of internal audit’, etc., where eminent personalities like P.R.
Ramesh, T.N. Manoharan, N.P. Sarda and Shailesh Haribhakti challenged the status
quo and presented their impression of how the profession would evolve in
the future. While these events dealt with the future of the profession, many
lecture meetings catered to the immediate needs of the members on a real-time
basis. Be it understanding the GST Returns or Audit Reports or the
newly-introduced ‘Banning of Unregulated Deposit Scheme’, the Society was
always at the forefront in organising such events. We had the occasion to
invite the CEO of GSTN Prakash Kumar to share his experiences on the GSTN
Portal, whereas senior Department officials addressed us on the TDS and VAT
Amnesty Scheme. We also requested seniors and subject experts from our Core
Group to speak on varied topics ranging from filing of income tax returns to
CSR, Important Amendments relevant to Audit, Important Direct Tax Decisions and
so on.
With a view to
keep the knowledge delivery crisp, relevant and participative, the panel
discussion format was introduced in many events – Corporate Law NRRC and
Internal Audit Conclave being a few examples. Panel discussion as a format was
also found popular and effective in RRCs – be it the General RRC or the ITF or
the GST RRC. We had events like the Real Estate Seminar, Tech Summit, etc.,
designed totally on the format of panel discussion. We also conducted many
industry-specific events like the workshops on NBFCs, Charitable Trusts and
Real Estate.
Taking the cue
from the successful long-duration courses on topics like DTAA, FEMA and
Advanced Transfer Pricing conducted since many years, a new long-duration
course on GST was successfully conducted during the current year. Over and
above these courses, many curtain-raiser courses covering the fundamentals of
the domain were also organised – Internal Audit 101 Series and GAAR Workshop
being examples.
The year saw an
increased focus on the use of technology. Be it Courseplay, Youtube and the
other social media or the digital video initiative of ‘Tax GuruCool’, members
were no longer constrained due to geographical limitations. A series of
workshops around effectively using proprietory software like SAP, Power BI,
IDEA, etc. were organised to equip the members to scale up their offerings. The
Tech Summit was an excellent event which showcased the endless possibilities
offered by technology solutions to our members. A few interesting concepts of
sponsorships and exhibition stalls were tried for the first time at the Society
and they were well received by the participants.
The five
residential courses of the Society were very popular and successful. We tried
many new concepts in the General RRC held at Agra, including a full day devoted
to practice management-related topics. The Society regularly conducted joint
events with other organisations like DTPA, JCAG, IIA, IMC, CTC, GSTPAM, AIFTP,
MCTC, FFE, etc. While some of these provided a geographical penetration, some
provided the Society an exposure to a different target audience.
In order to
re-inculcate the reading habit, the nine study circles were rejuvenated and
made more participative. Structured section-wise reading of the GST Law was
also attempted by a select group of invited faculties through the Intensive
Study Group concept in order to develop interpretation skills in this nascent
law.
Students
constitute the future of the profession. The triangle of graduation studies, CA
curriculum and article training leaves little time for recreation and
self-reflection. It’s indeed events like Tarang which bring out their
latent skill sets and give them the much-needed break from the monotony. The
Students’ Study Circle was also reactivated and found a lot of interest due to
the choice of relevant topics and faculties.
The Society,
jointly with the BCAS Foundation, undertook various social causes like tree
plantation, blood donation camps, heritage walk, etc. It also undertook the
task of providing relief to the victims of the Kerala floods.
The Journal
Committee celebrated the 50th year of the BCAJ by
commemorating feature writers who have written for more than five years. I
would like to place on record special appreciation for the Editor Raman
Jokhakar who led the year from the front. The Golden Year glowed even more
bright under your able leadership.
During the
year, the Society made a series of representations to the government
authorities on varied topics. Most of these representations received keen
interest from the policy makers and the Society was frequently invited to
present its views on various proposed legislations. A substantial portion of
the simplified GST Audit Report finds its roots in the recommendations and
efforts of the Society. The recent interpretation on the role of the GST
Auditor was being canvassed by the BCAS right from day one and it is satisfying
to find the said interpretation being revalidated by the government. The
Society also connected with other professional organisations in jointly
representing various other issues before the government. This effort also
received good media coverage and made the government act upon some of the
representations.
It’s time to
revert back to the thanksgiving. It’s now the turn of the office-bearers –
Manish, as an able Vice-President, provided the vital back-end support
throughout the year and also acted as a wise sounding board for any new
adventures or misadventures that came to my mind. With Suhas ably handling the
Treasury, I did not have to worry about finance and accounts. Mihir was the
go-to person for all Information Technology-related initiatives and issues,
whereas Abhay was the strong support for the events, including the Committee
meetings. I just cannot thank them enough. Together, we could divide activities
based on our strengths and generate synergies which helped us achieve what we
had dreamt of. My thanks are also due to their spouses – Poonam, Nita, Nipa and
Awani.
How can I miss
thanking my spouse? Thank you Jayashree for supporting me throughout the year
with your perspectives and also taking good care of Prakruti and Hriday.
Not coming from
a large firm background, there was always an anxiety about whether the BCAS
commitment would impact the professional practice. I am really blessed that my
partners and my team at SBGCO took on the baton really well and managed my
practice so that I could concentrate on fulfilling my obligations at BCAS. My
special thanks to Parth, Yash, Darshan and everyone at team SBGCO for walking
the extra mile. At a young age, you have set an example for many others to
emulate. The year came with lots of pressure on my time and helped me discover
my priorities. This discovery will go a long way in moulding my future – my gym
instructor is waiting for more regular visits from my side and so is the couch
in my library. After a year-long sabbatical, it is now time to accept speaking
assignments as also fulfil the promises made to family and friends.
My best wishes
and congratulations to the new team at the BCAS; I would like to wish Manish
all the best for an illustrious year ahead. Having interacted with him closely,
I am fully confident that he will take the Society to even greater heights
during his tenure.
Thank you.
INCOMING PRESIDENT’S
SPEECH
Manish
Sampat: I take this
opportunity to congratulate my predecessor Sunil for a fabulous and memorable
year at the helm of our Society, which comes to an end today. During the last
one year he has led by example and has ensured that the quality of service to
all the members is taken to greater heights. Now this has made my life much
more difficult, because the bar of expectation has risen so much that I will
have to do a tremendous effort just to equal it. As I embark on my journey as
President of this prestigious Society, I am both humbled and honoured and would
like to thank all of you and in particular the Past Presidents of the Society
for bestowing this honour on me, showing confidence in my capabilities and
considering me worthy of this position.
It is a matter
of great satisfaction, sense of achievement and pride for me, both personally
and professionally. I am also aware that along with position come greater
responsibility, dedication and commitment. I assure you of my best efforts and
promise you that I will strive to deliver to the best of my ability. I look
forward to the same love, support, encouragement and understanding that you
have been showing to all our Presidents in the past.
Our Society was
formed in 1949 and as we celebrate 70 years of our existence today and of our
service to our members… 70 years is no small achievement and I salute the founders
who had the vision to form this Society seven decades ago… and the
contributions of all the Past Presidents to bring this Society to its current
position. The Society has always offered mentorship, nurtured leadership and
given several highly successful torch-bearers to the profession.
Today I am in
front of you because of two reasons. One is that I am a chartered accountant
and the second is that I am associated with this Society. Before I share my
annual plan with you, I want to share with you a very short story. A story of a
typical South Bombay attitude boy, happy-go-lucky boy who was never bothered in
life, never serious about anything, who also used to do DJ-ing in his college
days, and immediately joined his father’s business during his college days.
After completing his graduation, he had only two wishes, one was to take the
family business forward, and second, was to get married. In fact, he had also
told his parents to find a suitable girl for him. But, in fact, life had
something else in store for him and his destiny was to take him somewhere else.
His father,
Pratap Sampat, was the only person who wanted him to be a CA, but since he
could not convince him, he took him to his family friend, Pravinchandra N.
Shah, who was a chartered accountant and also a family friend and he convinced
him (the boy) to become a chartered accountant. So he started his articles and
that’s how the story began, that’s where the seeds were sown. He started
enjoying what he was doing during his internship. All throughout, his pillar of
strength and inspiration was naturally his mother, Rohini Sampat.
When he started
his CA and during his exams, when he used to get up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the
morning to study, his mother used to give him coffee and sit across the table
just looking at him, as if he is the only person in the world doing his CA.
Even today, she remains a very comforting factor and a pillar of strength.
While doing his
articles, that boy met this pretty girl Poonam and things happened and she
would go on to become his wife and she would give him two lovely children,
Daksh and Kanishka.
Friends, the
rest is history, that naughty boy, that happy-go-lucky chap, that person who
was never serious in life, is today in front of you. Today, I want to thank my
Mom and Dad for shaping my destiny. I mean, they are the real reason why I am
there, and had they not been there, I don’t know where I would have been.
That’s one part of my journey.
The second part
of my journey is that after becoming a CA, even before my results came out, I
immediately plunged into practice. At my very first client meeting I met this
gentleman, he told me in his style, ‘Betaji, do you know about BCAS? Are you a
member of BCAS?’ I said no, but I will become a member. ‘Narang Sahib, thank
you for introducing me to this lovely Society.’
Soon after
that, I met this man Shariq Contractor. I do not have words to describe him. He
has been a friend, a mentor, a philosopher, a father-figure, an elder brother,
and he is always available for me whenever I require him. Even today, I can
discuss any matter with him, be it personal or otherwise. In fact, on my
membership card, I have been fortunate to have as proposer and seconder, Narang
Sahib and Shariq Contractor. After that, whenever I have filed a nomination
form at the BCAS, Shariqbhai and Gautambhai (Gautam Nayak) have always been my
proposer and seconder.
The story
doesn’t end there. After starting my practice, once, coincidentally, while at
the Tardeo Income tax office, I met this gentleman; after I greeted him, he
walks away and then comes back and says, are you a member of the BCAS? I said, yes, I am. He asked,
are you a part of the core group? My reply was ‘No’, I don’t know what is core
group. He said, why don’t you become a part of a core group? ‘We are just
forming a new committee, the HRD Committee, why don’t you become part of the
HRD Committee?’ I don’t think Amitbhai (Ameet Patel) will remember, but I had
asked, what would I have to do? He said, ‘you don’t have to do anything. Our
Chairman is so good that he does all the good work and you just sit and enjoy’.
That’s how my journey in the core group began, and I remember I started as a
course coordinator of the public speaking class which used to take place at
BCAS’s old office – Churchgate Mansion and I used to attend on Saturdays and
that’s where my first extended family of BCAS, my gang, was formed.
Similarly,
Pradeepbhai (Pradeep Shah) has been a great inspiration for me and the lessons
that he has taught me have really benefited me. In fact, in my annual plan, one
arm of the plan is what I have learned from him. I remember he always joked
with me. Once, I was going with him in his car as we used to stay close to each
other. His car broke down and I had to push his car. And till the very last, he would pull my leg
and tell people that he used to harass
me a lot and made me push his car! But I am sure, Pradeepbhai, wherever you
are, you are looking at us and blessing us all. One more thing about him. On
many occasions he used to tell me, ‘Manish, if you want to become President of
the BCAS, either you change your name to Rajesh or you join CNK’. I couldn’t
change my name, so I joined CNK.
My journey as
an office-bearer… In 2015-16, Raman (Raman Jokhakar) invited me to be a part
of the Office-Bearers and I don’t know whether it was by choice or by
compulsion, that he couldn’t find anyone. But yes, I agreed. And, rather than
being the Secretary, I volunteered to be the Treasurer. But between his and
Chetan’s (Chetan Shah) year, they made me sign so many cheques that I felt like
the second richest person in India after Mukesh Ambani! In those two years as
Treasurer I got a full control, a grip of the accounts, the financials and the
operations of the BCAS. That’s what helped me.
After him,
Narayan (Narayan Pasari) pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me take up
Secretary ship. What I learned from him was an eye for detail. He had such an
eye for detail that he could pick a needle from a haystack. Actually it was in
this year that I got more involved, I got more engaged with BCAS and got into
the groove. I started thinking about the direction in which I wanted to take
the Society and how I could contribute to it.
Next came Sunil
(Sunil Gabhawalla). What can I say about this leader… par excellence? The
name Sunil itself has Su-Nil, which means good, dark blue, which means that it
represents Lord Krishna. Actually, Sunil has been a stern and strict but
understanding leader, who would accept no nonsense, and an intellectual leader.
Whatever I say about him will be insufficient. On many occasions I got a chance
to talk to him and I remember that in
one of the conversations he told me, ‘Manish, I have two big dream projects in
my year. One, I want my RRC to be remembered. I want a fabulous RRC, and the
second thing is the Tech Summit’. Friends, you have seen how the RRC has gone,
he has led by example, the multi-disciplinary panel discussion in that RRC was
so well accepted that there were repeated requests to have this from various
organisations. He not only moderated it, but was totally involved in drafting
the case studies. One full day on practice management was also his brainchild.
Coming to the Tech Summit, to be quite frank, when he discussed the matter with
all of us, I remember all of us were so sceptical about what Sunil had in mind.
The super success that the Tech Summit has achieved has made it a flagship
event and we will be repeating it year on year. Sunil, your year has gone and
we have become the best of friends.
Before deciding
on my annual plan I did a little bit of introspection, what should it be, what
should it include, what should be its points? But before that I had to do a
little bit of thinking, that what does BCAS stand for? No doubt today BCAS is
considered the leading organisation of volunteers which is known because of its
ethical systems, because of the quality of its events, the quality of its
programmes and the initiatives that it takes. It is also known because of its
Journal. Whenever you go out, and say that you are representing the BCAS, you
get a response that they already know about the Journal. Before the BCAS’s
reach the Journal has already reached there. Finally, BCAS is also known for
its innovativeness and it has many firsts to its credit that others copy. This
is the strength of BCAS.
However, there
are challenges and the challenges, I think, can be broadly classified into two
parts. One is the challenges from other organisations, because other
organisations have also upped their mantle, giving similar programmes with
similar quality; and the second one is the dynamic, changing stratosphere or
the demands of the members. The members’ age profile has changed, their
preferences have changed and so BCAS needs to be relevant and it has to think
out of the box. It has to be constantly adapting to changes and open to
changes, new ideas and innovations.
Coming to
the annual plan, after
doing this introspection and understanding the background, I asked myself, what should be my priorities?
What should be my annual plan? I listed down the pointers and priorities. When I looked back to
compare it to the last two or three years’ plans, the points were more or less
the same. There was nothing different. So from that day onwards I decided, if
I can’t do anything different, I will do things differently. This is going
to be my theme for the year that we will be doing things differently.
Annual plans
are usually for one year. Every President brings in his own thought process and
priorities. What we, the leadership at BCAS, have decided is that now the plans
should be medium to long-term plans as we march to our 75th year. We
took the common man’s theme from last year as base. The common man means the
9,000 plus members of the BCAS, who are predominantly either two or three
partners or sole proprietors. After identifying them, what does a member of
BCAS want?
Naturally today
they are all looking at growth. We decided that our annual plan for the coming
year would be concentrated on and around growth. What does growth mean? It
means increase in size, in prosperity, in enhancement of your skills, etc. We
have identified five distinct areas of growth which is indicative of 5G.
5G as we all know is the fifth generation network for cellular phones and it
represents Speed, Efficiency, Supremacy, Competitiveness and Technology
Advancement.
The five areas
of growth that we have identified for the annual plan for the current year are Inclusive
Growth, Sustainable Growth, Economic Growth, Dynamic Growth and EQ Growth.
What does Inclusive
Growth mean? It means making life better for everyone. I believe in the
theory … (what I learned from Pradeepbhai), theory of abundance, that there
is enough work in the universe for all the people. So if you want to grow, you
don’t necessarily have to put your foot on somebody else’s shoulder to go up.
There is abundance, there are equal opportunities and we will try to create
equal opportunities for all our members, for all our chartered accountants.
Along with this comes the point that you look at the fraternity first and then
at your own self-growth. Making life better for everyone is inclusive growth
and this indicates building the profession.
The second plan
is Sustainable Growth. Look at long-term plans and don’t go for
short-term targets or temporary gains. Look at long-term gains. How can this
happen? This can happen only and only by inculcating ethics, not only in our
professional but also in our personal lives. A strong value system and ethics
is what will sustain over a long period of time. Secondly what is needed is
what Narang Saheb, Shariqbhai, Amitbhai
did… they caught people who were actually young and they saw their place to
leadership. We will aim to identify future leaders and groom them for future
leadership, because the newer ideas are naturally going to come from them. This
indicates building capacities and capabilities.
What are all of
us interested in? Ultimately, everything boils down to financial benefits. Economic
Growth comes as financial benefits. I believe, this can happen in two ways,
first by upgrading your technical knowledge and skills, and having new and
emerging areas of practice, so whenever we plan any programmes, RRCs, events,
we will have this in mind… and that’s the reason why we have a new Committee
this year (Internal Audit). Secondly, opportunities for networks and
consolidation of firms is the need of the hour. We will try to encourage this
and create opportunities for networking and consolidation of practices. Many
members have shown interest in this and this inspired me to have this growth
area. Of course, all of us know that in mergers and consolidations, two and two
always adds up to five.
Dynamic
Growth means making
the members more competitive by making them future ready. Use of technology in
practice, use of technology, digitisation and automation all at a reasonable
price indicates building the future of
the profession.
And last, the
most important focus area, an area that is very close to me. We may have
technology upgradation, all types of skills and other attributes, but
everything is useless if you don’t honour human relationships, human emotions
and human capital. That, I believe, is the fifth avenue of growth, which is Emotional
Growth.
So what we have
thought is that rather than just having suggestions, I have put concrete points
and I have asked all the Committees to work on at least one or two new events
or initiatives during the year. I have listed them out, so not only do they act
as our targets that we have to achieve, but also, at the end of the year, act
as an indicator whereby we will be able to measure our performance. I’m not
scared of failure. I have put in actionables for each Committee. Even if I
don’t succeed, I will at least go back happily, that at least I tried.
Starting with
the Accounting and Auditing Committee, naturally, this is my karmabhumi.
It is headed by our Himanshu Kishnadwala. This Committee does not have a
long-duration course. Therefore, one target for this Committee is to have a
long-duration course. We will figure out whether we want to have it on IGAAP,
Ind AS or on the Standards of Accounting. The second most important thing is that
this Committee is celebrating a milestone by way of its residential course on
Ind AS, the tenth edition of its residential study course. We have planned it
in a different way this year.
The next is the
Corporate and Allied Law Committee, which is headed by Chetan Shah. This
Committee, again, is more suited to fit into our aim of increasing the reach of
BCAS to its members. It will be initiating a lot of programmes with sister
organisations CTC, IMC and so on. We have also planned a lot of joint programmes
with regulators which will come out from this Committee. The third important
pointer in this Committee is that we will do programmes on emerging areas like
valuation, which has not been done since a long time.
The HR
Committee is headed by Rajesh Muni and KK. I call this Committee my janmabhumi,
because I was born in this Committee in the BCAS. It is doing admirable work;
there are many laudable projects, but I have identified two main items that we
would like to do. One is reviving the Professionals Accountancy Course which
was beneficial to those people who had not been able to complete their CA. The
second thing is that the 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth is
coming up, so we need to do something for that. We will plan some celebration
around this.
The next is the
Indirect Tax Committee and two stalwarts, Deepak Shah and Sunil Gabhawalla, are
heading it this year. Indirect tax and GST is the flavour of the season and
this Committee is doing great work. We aim to bring out a GST Audit Manual by
the next year’s audit season and this Committee’s long-duration courses and
intensive study courses will be raised to even higher standards.
The new kid on
the block committee is headed by Uday Sathaye and Nandita Parekh. This fits
into my annual plan, emerging area of practice. Internal Audit will find a
place in this year’s RRC. This Committee will do a lot of work in the area of
taking BCAS outside the city of Bombay. We also plan an Internal Audit RRC.
The
International Tax Committee headed by Mayur Nayak is a rock-solid performer and
always a winner. The Journal Committee is the vintage wine of our Society.
Raman Jokhakar heads this Committee and they do only two things, they improve
and innovate, they improve and innovate. They set higher standards for themselves
and the only agenda for this Committee is the digitalisation of the journals on
the net.
Seminar, Public
Relations and Membership Development Committee is headed by Narayan Pasari and
Pradip Thanawala. This Committee has a lot of work to be done. Public Relations
have been included purposely in the name this year with an intention. We will
look out for benefits for our members, like insurance at a discounted price and
other such services. RRC will improve upon its own performance last year and this
Committee will also work on taking the BCAS programmes outside the city.
The Taxation
Committee has been the most tech-savvy Committee headed by Ameet Patel. They
have pioneered the Tax-Gurukool, which has been adopted by other Committees.
They have something in store but I don’t want to disclose it right now. One
target for them is bring out the Tax Audit publication in time, before the tax
audit season.
Finally, the
Technology Committee, headed by Nitin Shingala. Only two items on the agenda
for them, develop a mobile app for the BCAS which is integrated with the back
office and seek the Committee’s support for streamlining our back office
infrastructure.
We have other
stakeholders also, and they are our staff. I have worked with them for the past
so many years and I know that they don’t have one boss, they have to reply to
250 bosses and they have to get adjusted to their style of functioning. I know
a lot needs to be done, we need to trim the excess fat and we will work in that
direction.
Before I
conclude, I would just like to say that BCAS is an organisation that is on
self-driven mode. We don’t have to do anything, it is a collective organisation
which is taken care of by itself, and only one person gets a chance to lead it
for one year. Friends, I can’t do anything alone without your support and it
will be a team effort. My success is in your hands.
I am not an
ardent fan of any poetry, I don’t read much of poetry but this is the poem I
learned in school and I still remember these lines. The poet is going through a
forest and he reaches a sweet spot where the weather is soothing, the scenery
is bewitching, making him want to stay for a while, but unfortunately, he
cannot enjoy, he has to move on to fulfil his promises. He says,
The woods
are lonely, dark and deep,
But I have
promises to keep
And miles to
go before I sleep
And miles to
go before I sleep.
Thank you.
