July, 2022 at MCA The Lounge, Wankhede Stadium, Marine Drive,
Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020.
The President, Mr. Abhay Mehta, took
the chair and called the meeting to order. All the business as per the
agenda contained in the notice was conducted, including adoption of
accounts and appointment of auditors.
Mr. Kinjal Shah, Hon. Joint
Secretary, announced the results of the election of the President, the
Vice-President, two Honorary Secretaries, the Treasurer and eight
members of the Managing Committee for 2022-23.
The following members were elected unopposed for the year 2022-23:
Mr.
Raman Jokhakar, Editor of the BCAJ, announced the ‘Jal Erach Dastur
Awards’ for the Best Article and Best Feature appearing in the BCA
Journal during 2021-22. The ‘Best Article Award’ went to CA Sneh Haresh
Machchhar for his article ‘Does Transfer of Equity Shares under Offer
for Sale (OFS) During the Process of Listing Trigger any Capital Gains?’
The ‘Best Feature Award’ went to Dr. CA Mayur Nayak, CA Tarun Singhal,
CA Anil Doshi and CA Mahesh Nayak for ‘International Taxation’. Mr.
Raman then announced the ‘S V Ghatalia Foundation Award’ for the “Best
Article on Audit”. The award went to CA Zubin Bilimoria for the article
‘CARO 2020’, and to CA Santosh Maller for the article ‘Accounting
Treatment of Cryptocurrencies’.
CA Abhay Mehta, President,
briefed the members on the relentless 42 years of service by Mr. Rajaram
Parwade to the Society. He was felicitated by CA Pranay Marfatia.
Members appreciated Mr. Rajaram’s services to the Society.
Before
the conclusion of the AGM, members, including Past Presidents of the
BCAS, were invited to share their views and observations about the
Society.
The July 2022 special issue of the BCA Journal on GST@5
was released by Padmabhushan Shri N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata
Sons.
At the end of the formal AGM proceedings, the 74th Founding
Day lecture was delivered to a jam-packed auditorium at the MCA The
Lounge. Members and attendees benefitted from the astute deliberation on
Future Trends – Risks and Opportunities by Padmabhushan Shri N.
Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons. The meeting formally concluded with
CA Anand Bathiya thanking the speaker for sharing his visionary
thoughts on a relevant topic with the attendees.
[The video of
the lecture can be accessed on the BCAS YouTube Channel, and a Report on
the Founding Day lecture is provided in the ‘Society News’ section of
this journal.]
ABHAY
MEHTA: This will be my last address to this august crowd as the
President of the Temple of Knowledge – known as BCAS. My journey
throughout the year has been with lots of learnings which has refined me
as a professional and as a human being too. The experiences which I
have gained shall be etched in my memory forever. I was guided through
this journey with constant reminder of my GURU Mahatria Ra’s following
sentence:
of the rose?
Just be in the rose garden long enough.
For
me, BCAS has been like a garden of rose, and the longer one is inside
the garden, one will be able to inculcate qualities preached at BCAS.
There were manifold responsibilities with which I commenced my journey
as the President. I had to ensure that the confidence which was reposed
in me by the torchbearers of BCAS is not belied by my performance. I was
also conscious of the rich legacy of BCAS which was not to be
compromised in any manner by any of the action initiated at my or my
committee’s behest.
I cannot judge and comment as to whether I
have been able to perform and execute my duties in a diligent manner. I
shall leave that judgment to the wisdom of the seniors and my colleagues
on various committees, who have been pillars of strength in each
initiative conceptualized and executed at BCAS.
I embarked on
this journey with an aim to implement some of the initiatives which I
had visualized for the profession, and which would be able to contribute
to the development of the profession thereby enhancing the image of
BCAS.
BCAS has always played the role of spotting upcoming areas
of professional opportunities and acting as a transformational
association, training pool of professionals to serve the trade, industry
and government as part of Nation Building.
Keeping all the
above aspects in mind, the theme for the year was finalized with the
acronym “ESG”. This acronym is a fancied one of late for businesses,
professionals, capital markets and economists as part of Sustainability
Opportunities, Compliance and Reporting. I too am very much focused to
assimilate knowledge on Sustainability themed ESG. However, the theme
ESG for us at BCAS was with a different meaning and purpose.
Individually, each word in the acronym is of critical importance to our
profession as well as country as a whole. For us, ESG stood for:
SCALING
GLOBALISING
To
meet the objectives of Empowering, there were concerted efforts during
the year at BCAS to be an enabler of showcasing latest knowledge on the
upcoming areas of professional opportunities to SMPs and young CAs.
Efforts were also steered in the direction of creating a platform for
networking amongst members of BCAS from all over India.
Under the
objective of Scaling, the approach during the year was to bring
professionals who are considered thought leaders in their domain on BCAS
platform. This enables to guide SMPs by providing vision for scaling up
their offerings. A concerted effort was also made to bring on board CA
chapters from other parts of the country on a common platform for
seminars and representations. This has ensured dissemination of
knowledge to remote areas of India through BCAS. The participants from
such regions have benefitted from rich content and experts in enriching
their knowledge and vision. Another mode of scaling up services was to
make the professional aware of the latest technologies available for
effective execution of services.
To meet the objectives of
Globalising, efforts were initiated to create awareness of the
professional services which can be offered by members at the global
level. Speakers of international repute have also been invited to
deliver lectures and share their views with our members thereby
increasing their horizon for services.
I have purposely
restricted myself to provide a broad indication of the theme-based
activities which were carried out during the year by BCAS. The reason
for the same, is that I presume that the detailed listing of the
activities which are carried out under each theme have been read by the
members from the Annual Report. If not, then I request members to please
go through the Annual Report, as it provides a bird’s eye view of the
humongous efforts put in through the 10 committees for organizing events
throughout the year.
Another reason is that I want to keep my
message brief (though many of you may not feel so) and provide enough
time to the Incoming President Mihirbhai to share his vision for the
next year and ahead. It is the future in which members would be
interested more than what has already been executed.
Along with
the theme for the year, there was a conscious call taken by the Office
Bearers to have an effort towards Internal Goal Setting for the BCAS as
an Organisation. This was coined as LEAP:
Excellence at BCAS
Accountability to BCAS members
Professionalism in BCAS
Again,
to save on time, I am not elaborating the various projects and
initiatives which have enabled us to progress quite satisfactorily to
achieve the objectives of internal goal setting. They have been
elaborately described in the Annual Report. The unfinished agenda, I am
sure, will be executed with equal zeal during the ensuing year.
I
would like to make a particular reference to the initiative to
professionalise the organisation was a step in the direction of
implementing Quality Management System (ISO 9001-2015). The first round
of internal audit by the consultants before inviting the certification
authorities to test the implemented processes has been completed and
they have provided observations which have to be complied or addressed. I
am hopeful that by 15th August, 2022, BCAS should be an ISO 9001-2015
compliant organisation. I should acknowledge the efforts of Anand
Bathiya, Zubin Billimoria and the staff of BCAS in driving this
initiative diligently.
There are some memorable events which I
consider landmark events during the year. These shall be remembered by
me for my lifetime.
- Hon. CBDT Chairman Mr. J B Mohapatra
giving BCAS an opportunity to visit his office to discuss Post Budget
Representation on Direct Tax Provisions of Finance Bill, 2022.
- Hon. Chairman, CBDT, Shri. J B Mohapatra addressing from BCAS platform on the topic “Direction of Tax Policy in India”.
- Recognition by BMC of BCAS’ contribution of disseminating knowledge
and adding values in professionals by naming the junction where BCAS
office is situated as “BCAS Chowk”.
- BCAS got an opportunity to share views on the upcoming budget and post budget views on ET Now Swadesh Channel.
- Diamond Jubilee Edition of BCAS Referencer, 2022-23 was released with
much fanfare. This event was made even more memorable by felicitating
Past President Mr. Pranay Marfatia for his passionate contribution for
more than two decades in ensuring quality content and printing of the
BCAS Referencer.
- Release of “Law and Practice of Transfer
Pricing in India – A Compendium”. This Compendium has contribution from
more than 150 authors. This Compendium has the Foreword by Mr. Pascal
Saint –Amans, Director, Centre for Tax Policy & Administration at
the OECD.
- Revival of TAXCON, after a gap of 7 years, with 6
professional associations coming on a common platform. This was the
first event held in Hybrid Mode.
- Revival of physical events – 55th RRC, 16th GST RSC and 11th IndAS RSC
- The event for youth and students – 9th YRRC and Tarang 2022, were really electrifying.
Whatever
I have stated as the progress or efforts in the direction of progress
at BCAS has been made possible due to efforts of many whom I would like
to acknowledge. First of all, the rock-solid support of the Chairmen,
Co-Chairpersons and Convenors of the 10 Sub-Committees has ensured
delivering more than 5,00,000 hours of education during the year through
seminars, workshops, residential courses, lecture meetings and study
circle meetings.
BCAS’ vibrancy is also due to the active involvement of the Past Presidents. Throughout the year, they were easily accessible for any guidance for the new initiatives and resolving vexatious issues. They, with their vast experience, come up with many suggestions for the image building initiatives of BCAS. Their contribution
in making representations to various regulatory authorities for better
governance and easing of difficulties faced by the citizens and
taxpayers is tremendous.
I was truly blessed to have a very
dynamic and young Managing Committee, where each and every member had
taken up individually or jointly projects identified at the commencement
of the year for effective execution. Some have already reached its
fruition and I am sure the unfinished ones will be executed during the
term of Mihirbhai.
My team of Office Bearers also provided
tremendous support in all the suggestions put forth for execution and
they were the real backbones for the co-ordination and monitoring of the
events and projects under ESG theme as well as the LEAP initiative.
In
Vice President, Mihirbhai, I had an ever charming person, who along
with the Jt. Secretary, Kinjal Shah, ensured to fine tune the ERP and
accounting software integration. Mihirbhai, also ensured the smooth
functioning and effective allocation of work within the BCAS staff. Jt.
Secretary, Chirag Doshi is the go-to person for the young members and he
ensured that we get enough mileage and visibility through Social Media
coverage. His contribution in designing programs for young CAs is worth
appreciating. Jt. Secretary, Kinjal Shah along with ERP related work
also effectively ensured digitization of journals and other website
related developments. In Treasurer Anand Bathiya, we had an able vendor
selector for various projects undertaken as well as a tough negotiator
for rates. He meticulously monitored progress of various projects with
effective coordination with the respective teams.
I would take
this opportunity to thank the Heads of Departments at BCAS as well as
all the staff members, who have always stood with me over the journey of
five years as Office Bearer and provided unstinted support at every
point of time.
On my professional life front too there had been
lot of adjustments to be made for professional commitments. I am
fortunate to have understanding partners who ensured that my absence did
not have much difference. A special mention of my partner Chetan Shah,
with whom there are many joint projects we work on. He ensured to deal
on many of them most effectively in my absence too. Looking at the way,
they have handled the assignments, I am worried that they would be
thinking “Arre iske bagair to kaam chal raha hai. Ab kya jaroorat hai
iski?” Well, I eagerly await to resume full-fledged and then wait for
their reactions!!!!
Lastly, turning to my personal life, the
year has been full of adjustments for my wife Nipa and my son Udit. They
are the real energy boosters for my journey. They ensured that whenever
I had some meeting clashing with some social commitments, they tried to
defer or accommodated by relieving me from attending those functions.
At residence also, there were times when I would be drafting some
messages, announcements or checking emails of BCAS. They would ensure
that I was provided my space to carry out work diligently. I am sure,
now they would be ready with the demand for the time which has been
sacrificed for BCAS be returned “Sud Samet”. Yes, I also feel they
deserve more time and attention from my end after the end of the
Founding Day Celebrations.
Before I end, I will bow to Lord
Shriji Bawa and thank him for giving me a chance to serve the Society
and profession. I am sure my Father and Mother, wherever they are, will
shower their blessings to continue to serve the Society and be on the
righteous path in my life.
I will end with a Gujarati quote
relating to dream by noted poet and writer Shri. Ankit Trivedi. I had
dreamt of becoming President of this august Society and when I have
lived the dream, I can say:
INCOMING PRESIDENT’S SPEECH
MIHIR
SHETH: As I stand here today what resonates in my mind is this
incredible and defining journey of mine at the BCAS. It has not only
shaped my thinking but also my life over the last few years that I have
been associated. What an awesome institution this is! How do you
describe it? – Perhaps words from an ordinary mortal like me may not be
able to express the intensity of the appreciation and respect I have and
I will have to borrow from a literary genius of Shakespeare to describe
it like how he described Cleopatra. He said… “Age cannot whither her,
nor can customs stale her infinite variety of charm, while others cloy
the hungers they feed she feeds where she is most hungered”. You can see
how aptly this description fits verbatim to the BCAS. While there are
institutions where members yearn and covet for the leadership position,
here is one institution that can pick up even an ordinary soul and
convert him into a leader just by its fine traditions, work ethics,
culture and values. This, I believe, is the hallmark of a great
institution.
Samuel Johnson, who was a prolific English writer
and an architect of modern English language said ‘Knowledge is of two
types – One you know the subject yourself and other.. you know the
people from where you can acquire it”. Admitting candidly how little I
know by myself; I am going to draw heavily from the knowledge pool of
BCAS members. I draw my comfort from the epitaph on Andrew Carnegie’s
grave which says, “Here lies the man who knew how to work and learn from the people far more capable and knowledgeable than he was”. I am deeply aware how eager each member
is to share his knowledge and expertise with others and personally,
this is what I have come to truly appreciate about BCAS. Each of my
predecessors, colleagues and friends at the BCAS have contributed so
much to widen my canvass, open my eyes to the possibilities I did not
see, and shift the paradigm to view things differently. It has been a
sheer delight to experience it. No wonder William Blake said ‘Knowledge
is an eternal delight’
Before I share my theme for the year, let
me briefly share my journey at the BCAS. Though I had been a member for
long time, my active association started only many years later when I
enrolled as participant in one of the HRD leadership camp. Soon thereafter, that one time association became an onward journey. Never once did I aspire nor dreamt -that one day this great institution will catapult me to the august position of
the President. Position which was once held by a few of my seniors like
Chinubhai Chokshi, B N Pardiwalla, N V Iyer, Ratanshaw Damanwaala. Past
Presidents of BCAS and partners at my alma-matter C. C. Chokshi &
Co.
I am deeply thankful to those who have made this journey
possible. I thank my late parents who would have been very proud to see
me here today. I thank them for giving me the right value system. I
thank Late Shri Pradeepbhai Shah for who demonstrated through his own
living example the virtues of humane leadership. Thank you, Awani, my
wife who has stood behind me for your rock-solid support in this
journey. Thanks CA Ambrish Mehta, my brother-in-law for your counselling
right from my college days, thank you Devang, my senior colleague at
work for taking over many responsibilities to make me free for BCAS.
Thanks to the immediate past presidents Abhay, Suhas, Manish, Sunil and
Narayan who have hand-held me in my journey with their extremely useful
guidance. Thanks to the HRD Committee with which I share a deep
emotional connect- where its respective Chairmen Rajesh Muni, Mayur
Nayak and Nitin Shingala groomed me to traverse this journey. And
lastly, but not the least, there is one person whom I cannot thank
enough. He is the person because of whom I could clear my CA exams.
Ladies and Gentlemen I am sure- like me there may be thousands of CAs
today who will share this deep rooted gratitude for the person I am
referring to. Ladies and Gentlemen- he is none other than our beloved,
adorable, one and only Shri N. P Sarda sir. Sir- I bow to you with
utmost humility and seek your blessings. But for your lessons on Holding
Company and Standard Costing, CA qualification would have only been a
distant dream for me. I can only pay my tributes through this subhashita
in Sanskrit which says:
What
it means is that there is nothing greater than Guru Tatva and no
service (Seva) greater than Guru Seva. There is no Knowledge (Gyan)
greater than Guru Gyan. I Bow to you, as I have gained everything in
life because of you.
Let me turn to my theme for the year.
Benjamin
Franklyn once said that it is so simple to be effective, but so
difficult to be simple. Therefore, in deciding my theme for the year, I
have tried to make things simple by focusing on systemic improvements.
So much has been already done by my predecessors that justice would not
be served if I abandoned the good work done under those initiatives and
tried to reinvent the wheel, creating complications. Therefore in my
opinion the wisdom is in continuing with some of those initiatives with
renewed vigour, ease and simplicity to be effective. Last year under
Abhay’s able leadership, number of initiatives were taken. In the next
2-3 years all these would have positively transformational effect for
the BCAS. Most relate to the adoption of new technology and syncing the
trajectory of plans with the demand of current times. My effort is to
continue in that direction and take forward the great work. Hence, I
have integrated in my theme many of those trend setting initiatives.
Ladies and Gentlemen- with this preamble, let me have the pleasure of
unveiling my theme for the year 2022-23….. It is named ‘EASE’.
What are the focus areas where this Ease is sought to be provided? Let me briefly explain.
i. Ease of Access to the knowledge.
ii. Ease of Embracing Emerging Opportunities.
iii. Ease of Reskilling.
iv. Ease of Networking and Reach.
Ease of access to the Knowledge is planned to be provided by conducting Hybrid programmes and expanding
the technology footprints by encouraging podcasts, short videos, and
promotion of archived programmes on course-play as also digitizing and
cataloguing the library
Ease of Embracing Emerging Opportunities
is planned to be provided by planning LM and workshops on Data
Analytics, MSME incentives, Finance & Capital Markets, AI,
Valuations, Digital assets, and PLI etc.
Ease of Networking is
planned to be provided by expanding the geographical reach of the
lecture meetings, workshops and Study Circles in Mumbai suburbs,
collaborations with local associations especially in non-metro cities,
felicitation programme for new CAs, mobile app and its messaging feature
and job fair in addition to the regular programmes being conducted.
Ease of Reach is sought to be provided through fine tuning of website,
SEO and active social media campaigning for the programmes and
activities of the BCAS and focusing on students’ programmes.
Ease
of Reskilling is planned to be provided by reinitiating Professional
Accounting Course through active back up of HRD Committee, programmes on
soft skills, digital orientation for senior citizens and short
certification programmes for management skills and other current areas.
What does EASE signify?
EASE
is an acronym for Excellence Achieved by Systemic Empowerment.
Empowerment comes out of Excellence. Excellence is achieved when
Knowledge is backed by an appropriate Skill and applied in the right
context. For the purpose a few systemic improvements may be required to
provide ‘Ease’. The result will Empower people.
You may have a question as to how this is going to be accomplished. The answer is simple.
Visualize,
Virtualize and Actualize and Globalize. All that we need to do is to
visualize, by brainstorming with the think- tanks of the BCAS, the
activities covering the above areas. Next step is to plan how they can
be virtualized so that the benefits can be multilateral. Finally, we
form an action committee to oversee each area of the initiative under
OBs to actualize and globalize it. I am sure a lot could be achieved
with your blessings, cooperation, guidance and most importantly shared
pool of knowledge.
I started my speech with an ode to this great
institution. Let me end my speech also in the same context. We will be
celebrating our 75th year shortly. This is one voluntary institution
that has stood the test of times despite the fact that the Profession
today is passing through interesting times. On one hand there is an
identity crisis while on the other hand there are host of opportunities.
While the enlightened lot is availing themselves of the opportunities
with catalytic support of institutions like BCAS, there are cynics who
proclaim that the CA profession is finished, and nobody can do anything.
In their perception, institutions like BCAS have outlived their
utility. I would like to give fitting reply to those dooms-day seekers
by way of a poem…….The name of the poem is…
that is why… that is why Ladies and Gentlemen… that is why… every time I
read this quote by Winston Churchill about great English king Alfred, I
cannot help but relate it to BCAS. With due apologies to Churchill I
have modified it to substitute King Alfred by BCAS. Here is the quote…
“That
sublime ability to rise above the whole force of circumstance, to
remain unbiased by the extremes of success and failure, to persevere in
the teeth of challenges and yet greet returning fortune with a cool eye,
to have faith in its team despite repeated setbacks raises BCAS far above the turmoil of tumultuous setbacks to its pinnacle of deathless
glory”.
With that Ladies and Gentlemen I conclude my acceptance speech seeking your blessings and best wishes for the year ahead.
