By Deepak Shah, Nitin Shingala, Chartered Accountants
Meeting addressed by Delnaz Mistry, Manager NSDL on Government’s Initiatives on Electronic Credit for Income Tax payments on 26-8-2009 at IMC was well received and appreciated by alL
The Power Point presentation covered all practical issues dealing with TIN, E-payments, Challan Status Enquiry key points for preparation and submission of E-TDS statements, Quarterly Statement Status, Refund Status, Registration for view of Form 26AS and benefits of Form 26 AS.
She brought out the common errors/inconsistencies and gave practical hints to overcome the same and also informed of new initiatives planned which are likely to be introduced in near future. Members resolved their queries and pointed out difficulties faced in the question-answer session.
Vispi Patel, Chartered Accountant, addressed members on Transfer Pricing Audit – Documentation and Benchmarking in the background of Recent Assessments/Decisions. He started with some important provisions, and then dealt in detail with documentation and Benchmarking of international transactions with associated enterprises. He not only covered important decisions on the topic but also dealt with interesting case study, so as to have a better understanding of the subject, in his inimitable style,’ which was appreciated by all those present in the meeting.
Accounting & Auditing Committee:
Seminar on Audit of NBFCs on 21-8-2009:
Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) are highly regulated entities and have many statutory /reporting compliances to be adhered to, especially if they are accepting deposits from the public. It is a specialised area of operations and the domain knowledge of the functions, operations, regulations and statutory compliances of NBFCs is necessary for handling matters relating to NBFCs.
NBFCs are fast emerging as an important segment of Indian financial system, performing financial intermediation in a variety of ways, like accepting deposits, making loans and advances, leasing, hire purchase, etc. The working and operations of NBFCs are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)within the framework of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and the directions issued by it under the Act.
To make the members and professionals in industry aware about the overall working of the NBFCs, BCAS under its Accounting & Auditing Committee, had organised this full day seminar at Hotel Marine Plaza. It was addressed by four eminent speakers having expert knowledge of the areas covered by each of them. The seminar was well attended by 80 participants and more than half of the participants were from industry, reflecting the importance of the subject.
The seminar was inaugurated by President of BCAS, Ameet Patel who emphasised the need to understand the regulations and compliances for NBFCs properly, so that their audit can be carried out in a meaningful manner.
Later, Chairman of the Accounting & Auditing Committee Himanshu Kishnadwala, touched upon the concept and the importance of topics chosen for the seminar.
The first session was addressed by Archana Mangalagiri, GM, Department of Non-Banking Supervision, RBI. She spoke on the topic of ‘Classification and Regulation for Deposit Acceptance’. Before going into the nitty-gritty of the classification and regulation, she took the participants through the history and build-up of regulatory mechanism over the years, which gave them an in-side view of the purpose of the classification and its regulatory requirements. She also dealt with the supervisory framework undertaken by RBI in the form of on-site inspection, off-site inspection and market intelligence. She further highlighted the importance attached to the role of auditors in the supervisory framework.
The second session was addressed by Jayant Thakur. He dealt with the topic ‘Some Regulatory Aspects for Auditors’. He touched upon the perspectives in NBFCs which are very relevant for the auditors and also shared his knowledge on the working of minimum NOF, what receipts are termed as public deposits, etc.
The third session was addressed by Manish Gujral. He gave a presentation on the topic’ Audit
Procedures and Reporting for NBFCs’. He briefly highlighted the Circulars and Guidelines issued by RBIwhich have to be taken into consideration while preparing financial statements of NBFCs as well as while auditing the same. He very methodically explained the disclosures to be made in the financial statements and also explained the procedures to be performed by the auditors to check the compliances and adequacy of the disclosures.
The last session was addressed by Yogesh Thar. He dealt with the ‘Typical Tax Issues in NBFCs’. He elaborately explained the controversies as to the compliance of Prudential Norms while provisioning of interest and bad debts vis-a-vis the allow ability of those expenses in Income Tax. He also shared his experience on the controversies relating to applica-bility of S. 14A and explanation to S. 73.
Overall, the seminar was a success as the participants got good insight into the important aspects of NBFCs which needs to be complied to have smooth functioning of the NBFCs as well as to carry out a quality audit of NBFCs.
Taxation Committee:
Seminar on Direct Tax Code:
The Taxation Committee of BCAS had conducted a Special Seminar on Direct Tax Code (DTC) on 28th and 29th August 2009 at Y. B. Chavan Pratishthan, Nariman Point. The seminar received very good response. The total enrolment was 470 participants which included members from the industry and from different parts of the country. The seminar was addressed by prominent speakers namely; Kishor Karia, Pinakin Desai, Gautam Doshi, Rajan Vora, Gautam Nayak, Yogesh Thar and Amrish Shah. The speakers highlighted many of the important aspects of the Direct Tax Code and gave suggestions for making proper representations to the Government on certain contentious and far reaching conse-quences that the DTC may have.
Taxation Committee:
Workshop on ‘How to conduct a Tax Audit’:
The Taxation Committee of BCAS had also conducted a half-day workshop on ‘How to conduct a Tax Audit’ on 4th September 2009 at Wa1chand Hirachand Hall of IMC. The workshop was conducted by CA Himanshu Kishnadwala and CA Anil Sathe, both past presidents of the Society. The speakers covered all the related aspects of tax audit and the participants were immensely benefited with the interactive session. About 270 members benefitted from the workshop. The audience included articled students, tax audit assistants and fresh chartered accountants.
Accounting & Auditing Committee:
Seminar on ‘Implementation of Standard on Quality Control’
A half-day seminar on SQC 1 (Quality Control for Firms that Perform Audits & Related reviews of Historical Financial Information, and Other Assurance & Related Services Engagements) was held on Saturday 5th September 2009 at the premises of the Society. It was attended by 55 participants and addressed by 2 Chartered Accountants in practice, Govind Ahuja and Ramchandran Vasudevan.
The seminar was interactive and covered various nuances of this new Standard on Quality Control which was issued to align quality aspects of Indian Audit practices with the rest of the world. The speakers dealt with important clauses of the standard and in particular covered documentation, monitoring audit assignments, and how a practice can establish quality control mechanism within a medium-sized practice. The participants not only benefitted from the insights of the speakers but received answers to their questions as well.
