BCAS In 2016-17. Part – 1

This month let us summarise the enriching learning experience at BCAS through Lecture Meetings, Workshops and Seminars.

In the May Issue, we will cover various activities pertaining to Students and the Representations made by the Society.

Lastly in June we will cover knowledge sharing through our publications and various other activities held at the Society.

This year the Society has conducted 26 Lecture Meetings, 31 Seminars and Workshops including the Residential Refresher Courses and 19 Joint Programs with various organisations.

Lecture Meetings: During the year, besides the various routine meetings on filing of income tax returns, implications of changes in the accounting standards or aspects of international taxation, the Society conducted lecture meetings like “Business Reorganisation and Restructuring” by CA. Pinakin Desai, “Cyber Crime, Cyber Security and Cyber Laws” by CA. Sachin Patil, (IPS), DCP, Mumbai Police and “Crude Diplomacy & Global Economy” by Mr. Kushal Thaker. These lecture meetings though significant for the profession covered a broad avenue of various areas where Chartered Accountants do not generally venture independently. These lectures received an overwhelming response.
With GST round the corner, how can BCAS not touch upon the GST aspects ? The Society had one lecture meeting by CA. Bhavna Doshi on GST and another session post the Budget by Advocate Vikram Nankani touching upon the various issues pertaining to GST in the coming months. Both these lecture meetings had Q&A from participants and an overall interactive participation.

A new concept of “Expert Chat @ BCAS” commenced this year in August 2016. The concept of Chat with an expert is appreciated drawing more and more attendance and viewership. The first one was “Winning Global Marketplace” where Mr. Lee Frederiksen, Ph.D. was in a fireside chat with Mr. Nishith Desai. This was followed by various others including “Is BEPS answer to Tax Planning?” Where CA. Rashmin Sanghvi was in fireside chat with CA. Sushil Lakhani. The Society also covered the Demonetisation which was the talk of the nation in November via an Experts Chat @ BCAS -“Issues and Impact of Demonetisation” where experts like Ms. Sucheta Dalal a journalist, and Mr. Dharmakirti Joshi an Economist from CRISIL were in a fireside chat with CA. Ameet Patel. All chat sessions received an overwhelming response. Another aspect of Expert Chat was covered by Mr. Jalaj Dani of Asian Paints on “Effective Professionalization of Family Managed Business – Opportunities & Challenges”. The chat was moderated by CA. Shariq Contractor. BCAS recently tied up with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) -Mumbai Chapter for conducting various joint events. This commenced with a session by Mr. Richard Chamber IIA President and CEO who was in a chat with Ms. Nandita Parekh at the Experts Chat @ BCAS Session on “Internal Audit 2017: Global Trends and Outlook”.

BCAS has been hosting its videos of lecture meetings on its YouTube Channel. Since August, it has also been live streaming its Lecture Meetings held at BCAS Hall at Jolly Bhavan office. This has benefitted many professionals across the country. Our YouTube Subscriber base has increased from 500 subscribers last year to more than 2,500 today.

 Here are a few statistics:
 
In terms of watch time, the viewership has increased by 176% over the last year.

 

While so many new things are happening around lecture meetings, the age-old tradition of the Society is not missed with its Budget Lecture meetings. Senior Advocate Shri S E Dastur continued to enthral the audience with his lucid style of presenting the speech on the “Direct Tax Provisions of the Finance Bill 2017”. The hall was packed with 3,000 people at the venue and over 15,000 watching live from various parts of the country.

Seminar & Workshops (including Residential Refresher Courses): If you have been a regular reader of the BCAJ you must definitely have glimpsed through the Golden Jubilee Residential Refresher course (RRC) held at Jaipur in the February Issue. This was the 50th year of the RRC’s being organised by the Society and the celebration was a grand one witha blend of knowledge and enjoyment. The Golden Jubilee RRC had an overwhelming response of 275 participants from all across the country. The 20th International Tax Conference was held at an international location, Sri Lanka in August where the Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was invited as chief guest. The conference had again very elaborative technical coverage with speakers like CA. Pinakin Desai, CA. Padamchand Khincha & CA. T. P. Ostwal. Besides this local speakers namely Shri Suresh R. I. Perera and Shri Shiluka Goonewardane talked about the Taxation in Sri Lanka and the Investments in Sri Lanka respectively.

The 7th Residential Study Course on IndAS was held at Silvassa in February 2017 where the various issues relating to IndAS- 109, aspects on ICDS vs. IndAS, Case Studies on Revenue Recognition under IndAS – impact on different sectors, Case Studies on Consolidation and Business Combinations, Case Studies on Real Estate/Infrastructure Companies and Accounting Standards for Non-IndAS were covered.

Besides these the 2nd Batch of Mentoring Miracle kick started in January with a large number of mentees enrolling for the same. Technology being the forefront in todays’ economy BCAS conducted a two day seminar on “Advanced Excel” in November and a “Workshop on Audit In IT Empowered World – Techniques For Effectiveness & Efficiency” in March. Both received tremendous response and had in store great learnings on the various techniques used in a system based environment.

The Seminar on “Estate Planning, Wills and Family Settlement Critical Aspects” held in December was a full house. The program also sold more than 100 Pendrives of the recorded event. A two day workshop on “Mergers & Acquisitions” held in January had excellent speakers like Dr. Lalit Kanodia – Chairman Datamatics, Mr. Suresh Kotak – Chairman Kotak Group, Dr. Anup Shah, Adv. Sharad Abhyankar – Sr. Partner – Khaitan & Co., Adv. – Akil Hirani- Majmudar & Partners, CA. T.P. Ostwal, Mr. Sudhir Valia – Exec. Director Sun Pharma Ltd, CA. Hiten Kotak, CA. Himanshu Kishnadwala, CA. Sridhar Swamy & CA. Mitil Chokshi. This workshop attracted participation from various parts of the country.

In    August, the Society conducted the “Workshop on NBFC” covering significant topics in that area like Prudential Norms & Compliances – Important Aspects, Statutory Audit Aspects under Companies Act, 2013, Internal Audit Perspective for NBFCs and Internal Financial Controls for NBFCs.

The latest is the GST season, where the Society has already organised three houseful seminars with more than 300 participants at each session. The recent one was in the month of February. This two-day program brought together eminent speakers in the field of Indirect tax at one table to educate our members on GST.

While we talk about the various seminars and workshops let us also glance through the various courses at BCAS which also attracted excellent participation. “Four Days Orientation Course on Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)” held in the month of March received more than 100 participations.

This was the 17th year of the Society where it has been conducting the “DTAA Course” successfully. This year also the Course was completed over 14 session on weekends covering aspects of various treaties, BEPS and Equalisation levy.

Non-Technical topics like the Leadership camp covering “Chanakya Business Sutra” by Mr. Mahendra Garodiya, “Heal without medicine” a program on healing without any medicines, public speaking program and “workshop on the CPR training” for members including free health check-up all received a welcome response from various participants in the profession.

The Youth being the pulse of the nation and the future of the profession cannot be set aside. Thus the Society also holds the Youth RRC every year with this year being the consecutive 4th year. BCAS held this RRC jointly with ICAI. Participants from both organisations attended and enjoyed the learning at Alibaug.

The Society has joined hands with various other organisations.

While
we continue with lots more this season, a few more aspects will be covered in
the coming next 2 issues of the BCAS Journal. The Annual Report of the Society
will also detail all these activities along with participation numbers and
various other statistics.