Dear Members
It’s that
time of the year when the Nation celebrates the “Festival of Lights”. On
occasions like this, it is also time to revisit our ancient scriptures of
wisdom and apply them in the current context of our profession. To my mind, of
the many incidents in the “Ramayana”, a few specific incidents clearly charted
the story.
One such
incident is that of King Dasarath granting three boons to Kaikeyi since she
saved his life. Kaikeyi deferred the exercise of these ‘boons’ to a later point
of time, much to the peril of the entire generation. As accountants, we can
easily correlate this with the concepts of ‘contingent liabilities’ and
‘unforeseen risk’. As assurance professionals, do we somewhere ‘grant’ or
‘communicate’ an assurance without fully realizing or foreseeing the possible
consequences thereof? While the statutorily prescribed GST Audit Report
primarily anchors itself around reconciliation, the Technical Guide suggests a
much larger involvement / expectations from the GST Auditors. As auditors we
understand that the Technical Guide does not bind the members. Will all
stakeholders clearly understand this? Is any purpose served by suggesting open
ended assurances? Let us hope and pray that more deliberations are undertaken
before the Technical Guide transitions itself into a Guidance Note.
The eventual
exercise of the boons, the principle one being the preference of Prince Bharat
over Prince Rama as a successor to the throne really brings to the fore the
complex and conflicting interplays in succession, especially to positions of
leadership. As the Central and Regional Council Elections come nearer, the
incident would remind our members of the implications of prioritizing any
parameter other than merit in the selection process of an able leader to
represent the profession.
The “Golden
Deer” episode clearly suggests the need for professional skeptism especially in
situations where things appear too good to be true. Be it investment or
professional services, if the returns or compensation exceed the value
proposition, it is likely that we are entering the “Golden Deer” trap.
The
“Sanjeevani” episode is one more interesting example. The inability of Hanuman
to identify the correct herb resulted in the entire mountain being mythically
transported. When we train our juniors, do we make mistakes of not clearly
communicating our expectations and thereby resulting in getting general answers
from which we have to sift the specific answers that we want?
The last
incident that I would like to touch upon is that of the washerman, whose
comments resulted in the exile of Seetaji. One can also couple this incident
with the Manthara incident and can clearly make out the need to drive decisions
based on inherent and coherent substance rather than mere external narratives.
While debates and alternative arguments (including social media and internet
sources) help mould the opinion, they may not always be the right approaches.
For many
professionals, October marked the end of a very busy season. It is now time to
relax and spend time with your families and enjoy the festivities. Such
periodic breaks help a person to re-energise and strategise for the future. At
the Society, a series of events have been planned in the next few months to
help the members develop relevant technical skills and reflect on the future
course of their careers.
One
such innovative programme is the 52nd Residential Refresher Course.
While the time for early bird incentive has already expired, it is better to
enrol late than never. This time, the RRC is at a luxurious venue of ITC Mughal
in the historic city of Agra. Packed with innovative formats, relevant topics
and best faculties, this RRC promises to be an experience of a lifetime. It has
a full day devoted to practice management sessions where members can
collectively reflect on the future of the profession. The detailed announcement
is available on the website and I would urge the members to enrol at the
earliest to avoid disappointment.
On
31st October, the Prime Minister dedicated the “Statue of Unity” as
a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. At 182 metres, the Statue is the tallest
in the world and was constructed in a very short time frame of 33 months. Many
of us see our house renovation projects span across more than 6-8 months! It is
perhaps this efficiency and many more structural reforms like this which
prompted the World Bank to improve the ease of doing business rankings from 100
in 2017 to 77 in 2018.
These
are indeed times of confusion. On one hand we see such massive improvements in
rankings and periodic revalidations from international agencies of the
correctness and the decisiveness of the reforms, while on the other, we see
murmurs of hazy implementation and biased approaches. What is the correct way
forward? As highlighted in the earlier anecdote of the washerman and Manthara,
each of us will have to find the answers from within.
Well,
in the meantime, do celebrate the festivals. Wish you a very happy Diwali and a
prosperous New Year.
Yours
truly
Sunil Gabhawalla
