President’s Message | August 2019
Dear Professional friends,
I’m happy to be the 47th President of Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association. To lead the elite members is a matter of pride and honour bestowed on me. The association has to its credit extraordinary work done by my predecessors, which I wish to continue further. This happiness was short-lived with severe disaster due to flood in several parts of Karnataka, which has dislodged dreams and livelihood of many. The affected areas and devastation stories are heart wrenching to see and hear. KSCAA through its own platform has taken initiative to seek for contribution from members and others to help the needy. We have already distributed our first lot of relief material to the needy and would continue to do so in the cause of charity and relief. It is our conscious decision to keep this help moving ahead, so that we build better society in ways and means available to us. Request you all to generously contribute to the relief activity.
My wishes to all of you on the Independence Day, our forefathers have toiled hard to get us the freedom which we are enjoying. Independence is the manifest of freedom and is absolute, but freedom comes with its own responsibility. We need to ascend to the state of real freedom to uphold and justify the struggle of Indian Independence movement.
India revokes article 370, thereby the special status provided to J&K has now been withdrawn. Though, this piece of information may not have direct impact on the profession or association. But it opens the pandora box, legally and diplomatically and would be interesting to follow.
KSCAA has moved its office to a new location at Rajajinagar (near Rajajinagar Metro station), this will help your association to serve you better.
News Round up
Issues in respect of payment of third installment under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 (‘IDS’) – CBDT has directed to consider all the payments made/effected by the declarants under IDS on or before 03.10.2017 as deemed to have been paid within the due date for third installment i.e., 30.09.2017 in the lieu of the continuous holidays till 02.10.2017.
Task force for drafting of New Direct Tax Legislation – The government has provided the extended time to task force for submitting the report on New Direct Tax law till August 16, 2019.
Monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, High Courts and SLPs/ appeals before Supreme Court has been further enhanced.
Clarification in respect of filling-up of ITR forms for AY 2019-20 – CBDT has issued certain clarifications in order to address various queries raised by the stakeholders in respect of filling-up of the ITR forms.
India-China DTAA has been amended to incorporate BEPS related provisions.
The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on the 31st of July, 2019. Earlier the Amendment Bill, 2019 was passed by Lok Sabha on the 27th of July, 2019. With these amendments the Government is seeking to tighten CSR norms and ensuring stricter action for non- compliance of the company law regulations. Further, more accountability has been brought on the shoulders of professionals to ensure better enforcement and compliance management.
The Government has continued its take on shell companies by adding non-maintenance of registered office as a ground for de-registration of a company. Slight relaxation has been given to the company management by recategorization of 16 minor offences as purely civil defaults. The other amendments include transferring of functions with regard to dealing with applications for change of financial year to Central Government and shifting of powers for conversion from public to private companies from NCLT to the Central Government, as well as more clarity with respect to certain powers of the National Financial Reporting Authority.
Representations
We had three representations during the period. First one, is to extend the time provided for Comprehensive Karsamadhana scheme 2019, enlightening various practical issues faced by the business and professionals in the scheme. Second one, to extend the time provided for audit under Karnataka Co-operative Society Act in the background of harsh rains and flood. Third one was to extend various timelines for filing returns provided in Income Tax and GST in the back ground of flood in Karnataka. We have not left any opportunity that could have been represented, we request members to populate any areas which needs to be represented.
Upcoming Programs
KSCAA has conducted its first program in Hassan with over 100 participants, we would like to reach to audience not generally attended and hence request members to suggest any areas or location where such programs can be benefited by members. We are also chalking out programs on areas of Income tax, GST in Davanagere, Shivamogga and Bengaluru. Watch this space for latest programs.
I’ve large-shoe to fill but with all your support it seems not so difficult dream. I request each one of you to suggest any plans or ideate on the areas which can help our members fraternity. We have reached a stage of development where collaboration supersedes competition, with right framework and objective we can create an extraordinary line of success. Hence, we have named this year’s theme as “Convergence – creating impact together”. Coming together is not arithmetic summation of strength but the mystic results are beyond it.
As Charles Darwin says “It is the long history of human kind that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed”.
Yours Sincerely,
CA. Chandrashekara Shetty
President
