President’s Message | January 2021

Dear Professional Friends,

Let me start this month’s message by wishing you all a very Happy, Prosperous & Healthy New Year!

The year 2020 unwound faster than we thought and had a rollercoaster ride with pain bearing amount of ambiguity & uncertainty, amongst all the natural things we thought we did. If we count the provisions which created amongst us was the reflux of human response to the new reality and our agile response to the changed world. The learnings were deep and strong, how much ever one may call it unwarranted, the collateral damage of lives it took was deeply disturbing and sad. I personally hope that the year 2021 would negate the unsettling ride for a better and a bright future.

On a positive note, parameters of counting the economy looks dawning and surge in demand makes a promise of resilient Indian economy. I only hope the economy hits back to its track and run like well oiled machine. The rising domestic demand, performance of stock markets, inflows from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and moderate inflation are positive sides of the promising Indian economy, we hope the liquidity, exchange rate, etc. are also under check for a quicker comeback.

One of the greatest learning from 2020 was on adoption to the virtual world which forced to move to a faceless economy. This though looked tough initially, few even sensed it as time saving and prominent. But one of the ill effects of the virtual world is the fact that the official work has crossed the threshold and is part of private space, which brings the unwarranted chaos on a real time. Especially with due dates falling right across various dates in a month, the liberty of a weekly off and holidays have vanished among the professionals. I hope some sense prevail on stopping this chaos entering our private world. Our thought on virtual connect continues as we chalk out to conduct KSCAA’s Annual Conference on a similar way and thereby we wish to continue the tradition of conference even this year with same vigour, joy and fame.

News Roundup

Direct Tax

Considering the ongoing unprecedented times, KSCAA along with other professional bodies made representation for timely extension of due dates. There was a wave of requests/appeals on twitter by various taxpayers, professionals, institutions and even political leaders to extend the due dates.  The Ministry of Finance finally responded to the plea and vide its press release dated 30th December, 2020, a short extension was granted. The due date for filing tax returns in case of Assessee’s not subjected audit is 10th January, 2021; Cases where Assessee’s are subjected to audit is 15th February, 2021; Due date for furnishing tax audit / TP report is 15th January, 2021; Due date for filing declarations under VSVS is 31st January, 2021.

Indirect Tax

One of the many changes in this new year is the GST Law, new rules have been made effective from 1st January, 2021. The implementation of E-Invoicing for business entities with turnover greater than 100 crores happened without a glitch, thanks to the outreach programmes conducted by the GST Department and the handholding done by CA’s for their client, in the same spirit, I request all CAs to help their clients in implementing the new rules with respect to return filings, claiming of Input tax credit, aadhaar authentication, etc. The nationwide crackdown on fake invoicing conducted in the month of December has resulted in the highest GST Collection till date to the exchequer, though this is an encouragaing sign, however the news about Chartered Accountants being involved in this has troubled me, let us all be on the right path as we are the bridge between the assessee and the departments.

Corporate Law

The MCA vide circular dated 17th December 2020 has extended the effective date for CARO 2020 from 1st April 2020 to 1st April 2021.

Through the Companies (Meetings of Board and its Powers) Fourth Amendment Rules, 2020 the MCA has extended the dates for conducting Board meetings through Video Conferencing (VC) / Other Audio-Visual Means (OAVM) for approving Financial Statements and other restricted agenda items under Rule 4 of Companies (Meetings of Board and its Power) Rules, 2014 from 31st December, 2020 to 30th June, 2021.

The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 was introduced with several measures to improve the ease of doing business and decriminalize certain offences under the Companies Act, 2013.

The MCA has now notified that 45 sections of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 will be effective from 21st December, 2020.

Conclusion

While penning down the closing message for this month, the year 2020 had taken the calorific value amongst the other thing, I remember the opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”. The signal of change sends variety of meanings but it only bestows the reader what he perceives making his disposition a variant than the real word change. January signifies the rejoice of victory in efforts of our Freedom Fighters and the promise we made to abide by constitution. The construction of constitution and its beauty is a pride, which we celebrate and enjoy. As we celebrate 72nd Republic Day on 26th of this month, let us pray for prosperity and unity in our country while remembering those holy souls who gifted us this liberation and jubilation.

I wish you all a very Happy Republic Day and let’s promise our motherland that we shall do everything to enrich and preserve our heritage and pride.

Happy Reading!

Yours’ faithfully,

CA Kumar S Jigajinni,

President