Christmas is round the corner as I begin writing this month’s President’s Page and New Year would have begun by the time you read this page. My colleagues at the BCAS join me in wishing all of you a very Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2010 will be more cheerful, less stressful and will bring with it good health and peace to everyone.
Once again, readers have continued to respond to my messages and I have received several mails from members of BCAS echoing the sentiments that I convey through these pages. I am glad that members are spending time in sharing their thoughts. Receiving feedback is very important for us.
The ICAI elections are finally over and the results are also informally known to us. The unfortunate incident of booth capturing is indicative of the state of affairs. Can things get worse than this? One hopes that the newly elected Council members will readily and expediently work towards improving the image of the Institute as well as our profession. Members of the ICAI are eagerly looking forward to the new team making perceptible changes in the manner in which the organisation is run both with respect to members as also students and in the cleansing operation as far as the image of the organisation is concerned. Let us not forget that the media too is now watching closely the developments at the ICAI.
At the BCAS, the IFRS Residential Study Course held recently was very well received by the members and other participants. The structure of the programme, the efforts of the paper writers and the excellent group leading by the various group leaders contributed immensely to the value addition that BCAS offered to the participants. One of the participants also voluntarily guided interested participants in doing Yoga in the early morning at the scenic and serene venue. The Indian Merchants’ Chamber had joined with us for this programme and so, we also had a few members of IMC participating in the event. We have also received requests from members from other cities to organise similar courses in their cities. The Accounting and Auditing Committee will take a decision in the matter shortly. We now eagerly look forward to the annual RRC scheduled to begin on 10th January at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Apart from this, there are a large number of important and interesting programmes planned in the coming months.
On the economic front, the alarming increase in prices of vegetables, grains and other food materials is very worrying. When even the economically well-to-do citizens are feeling the pinch, one shudders to think about the plight of the less fortunate poor people. One wonders how they would be making both ends meet. Let us hope the Government wakes up to this problem soon and takes corrective action. Similarly, water shortages that are already visible in several parts of the country are going to become worse as days go by. It’s high time we all seriously started conserving water and curbing excess usage. The same applies to electricity and petroleum products also. Global warming alarms are sounding on a daily basis. Is anyone listening?
The Govt. finally notified the amended Rule 3 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 with a view to guiding employers in computing the value of taxable perquisites in the hands of employees. The new Rule was long overdue. Having waited so long for this, employers were expecting substantial changes particularly in view of the fact that under the FBT regime, there were a number of items of expenses which were considered as fringe benefits. The new Rule, however, is almost a copy of the old Rule as it stood before the introduction of FBT. This may be interpreted to say that the Govt. clearly erred in taxing several expenses under FBT despite the fact that employees never got any benefit from such expenses. I wonder whether someone can take the Govt. to a court of law for wrongfully taxing employers on such expenses for the past few years. In any case, it’s a matter of great relief that FBT is gone and employees would have to pay tax only on those perquisites on which they were originally paying tax before FBT was introduced.
Recently, I had the occasion to visit Bangalore for a CPE Conference organised by the Bangalore Branch of SIRC. I met many members of BCAS and was happy to hear good words about the BCAS from them. The goodwill that our founders and past presidents have built over the years is so strong that members from across the country eagerly await our programmes and our publications. The BCAJ, of course, continues to be one of the best professional magazines in the country.
By the time you would be reading this page, the incumbent team at BCAS would have completed about 6 months in office. We took charge on 10th July, 2009. The six months that have passed have simply flown by. Various initiatives have been taken during this period to improve the administration of the Society. Conscious efforts are being made to make our response time shorter and our staff members are being gradually trained in the various aspects of serving members. Technology is being harnessed aggressively to improve our services. Efforts are also being made to bring about innovation in terms of the subjects and speakers at our programmes. New talent is being proactively discovered and groomed. This also applies with equal force to the future leadership at the BCAS. I invite you to let us know whether you have found any difference in our functioning.
Finally, I read an interesting news item recently on an international website. It spoke of how the manager of the Hip Hop group “Black-Eyed Peas” seems to have missed a minor detail… for the last ten years or so, he has neglected to file income tax returns on the group’s income of $10 million ! Looks like tax evasion is not restricted to one country alone!
All the best for a great year ahead.
Sincerely yours,
Ameet Patel
