It is my proud privilege to
address my first communication to you as the newly elected President of BCAS.
I am daunted by the huge responsibility that is cast upon me and I hope to
complete the year ahead with ease on the back of unstinted support of members
and well wishers of this august body. The large number of congratulatory
messages that I received on my assuming the post of President have left me
speechless. I am thankful to every one of them.
The BCAS year 2009-10 has
begun with a very encouraging event. For the first time in its history, the
BCAS celebrated its Founding Day by combining it with the Budget lecture
meeting. S. E. Dastur, as usual, addressed a packed house of more than 2,000
people in his inimitable style. Apart from these people, a large number of our
members and others also took advantage of the lecture by viewing it online on
a real-time basis. We had arranged a live webcast of the AGM and the lecture
meeting for the benefit of a larger audience. This facility was welcomed by
several members and the response that we received is truly amazing. The web
statistics show that people from USA, UK, Switzerland, Singapore and UAE also
watched the webcast, apart from the large number of our members from all over
the country. This has given us the reassurance that we need and, in future, we
hope to bring more programmes to our members through webcasts.
In the year ahead, we hope to
usher in certain changes at the Society to improve its functioning and also to
reach out to more and more people. We will also strive to encourage younger
members to come forward and take up leadership positions in the Society.
Budget 2009 was preceded by
the usual hype on the part of media. But, it turned out to be much ado about
nothing. Considering the fact that the Finance Minister has promised to table
the new Direct Tax Code very soon, the large number of changes announced in
the Budget could have been held back. The minor tinkering with the threshold
limits will hardly make any difference to the tax payment by individuals.
However, the abolition of surcharge is welcome. The salaried class in the
higher income group will stand to benefit by this change. The abolition of the
infamous FBT will hopefully close a painful chapter in the history of the
Indian tax regime. However, one major grievance that most tax professionals
would have against the Finance Minister would be the manner in which the
Finance Bill is sought to be converted into law. Hardly any time has been set
aside for discussion on the floor of the Parliament. It is obvious that due to
lack of time, the possibility of professionals and trade bodies making
representations to the Government and the chances of the Finance Minister
having the time to read such suggestions are very remote. This is most
unfortunate and does not augur well for a healthy manner of legislation.
The postponement of the new
rules for TDS was expected and was badly required. The unnecessary hurry with
which the CBDT has tried to bring in such sweeping changes without putting in
place the infrastructure to implement the changes could have easily been
avoided. One hopes that in future, the Govt. consults professionals before
taking such decisions. The CBDT must realise that in order to bring about
major changes, it is essential to first win the confidence of the tax-paying
community. In contrast to the attitude of our CBDT, I was amazed to read about
the US Govt.’s proposal to bring in mobile telephone expenses under Fringe
Benefit Tax. There, when the Govt. wanted to bring in one item of expense
under the FBT, the proposal has been placed on the IRS website for public
comment for more than 2 months ! The new rules for remittance of funds out of
India are now in place. The system appears to be working well. However, one
will have to wait and watch how the Income-tax department uses the information
that it will collect. Let us hope that this is not used by them as one more
tool for hounding honest taxpayers and deductors.
The ICAI has recently set up
a Women Steering Group. This group is dedicated to serving women
Chartered Accountants and female students aspiring to be the members of the
ICAI. This is a welcome development. A few years ago, the BCAS had conceived
the idea of creating a special forum for women CAs and it had met with a good
response. Recently, it is observed that the percentage of girl CA students and
lady members has risen considerably. I am sure that with ICAI now taking up
this initiative in a big way, more ladies will stand to benefit.
Finally, as I write this
page, the media has reported that the lone terrorist captured alive during the
Mumbai terror attacks has confessed to his crime. Finally, justice will be
done and the perpetrator of a heinous crime will be suitably punished. This
will not bring back the hundreds of lives which were lost on those fateful
days of November. But at least the world now knows for sure what our
neighbours have been up to.
