WIRC of ICAI successfully conducts National Conference on GST in Mumbai

Mumbai: A two-day conference on GST was successfully organised by the Western India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (WIRC of ICAI) on December 16 and 17. The conference was physically attended by more than 500 Chartered Accountants across the country. Some of the key topics deliberated at the National Conference included Changes and amendments in GST, case studies, emerging professional opportunities, Time Barring under GST, Landmark Judgments Under GST, and Frauds and Arrests under GST.

Experts visualised a lot of domestic and international opportunities coming in way of Indian CAs on the GST front. “In the area of GST, a lot of outsourcing work is expected to come into India from US, Europe and the Middle East. These economies will save a good amount of revenue by outsourcing this work to India, while the CAs will be able to do the compliance work easily, sitting at their offices in India,” said CA Murtuza Kachwala, Chairman, Western India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. CA Kachwala commended the efforts of young CAs in developing technologies in the areas of Blockchain and other software technologies on accounting and reconciliation. He advised them to keep their eyes and ears open in seeking new opportunities.

According to CA. Rajendra Kumar, Chairman, GST & Indirect Taxes Committee of ICAI, in the near future, Input tax credit (ITC), compliances and litigations are going to be key areas of specialisation for the Chartered Accountants. “Exports on low value goods were not taxed anywhere. A lot of nations are concerned as digitalisation and e-commerce are facilitating innumerable transactions of low value goods without being subjected to any taxes or duties.”

“Major economies of the world have decided to levy tax on low value goods. Nations have started to co-operate with each other to collect taxes from their respective defaulters, without the need for jurisdiction. This has recently happened with 13 of the OECD countries who have signed a pact in this regard. India too is expected to adopt the same approach in the near future,” said CA Rajendra Kumar.

CA Umesh Sharma, Vice Chairman, National Committee on GST & Indirect Taxes Committee of ICAI advised young chartered accountants to serve the society by accomplishing more knowledge on GST. ICAI is working hand in hand with the GST department by providing training and building capacities of the GST officers in the country, he said. “For the first time in the country, under the leadership of CA Rajendra Kumar, a national capacity building symposium was organised by ICAI last week in Chennai for 70 CGST, SGST and UTGST officers from 22 states of the country. We come across numerous issues due to divergent GST practices followed by each state in India. In the symposium, as GST representatives from so many states assembled in one place, a lot of inter-state issues concerning GST were discussed and deliberated, which resulted in better idea and decision making,” said CA Sharma. These 70 officers comprised of the ranks of commissioners, superintendents and inspectors.

CA Shweta Jain, Secretary, WIRC of ICAI threw light on the programs undertaken by the council to keep its CA cadres upgraded and updated. “WIRC of ICAI is rigorously pursuing technology-oriented programs five days a month. In these programs, we train our CAs on data science and associated languages of Python, Tableau Fusion, AI, Blockchain, Power BI and Power Query. We provide virtual refresher courses for regular CAs to enrich their knowledge and special courses to women CA members and students who had to take a break in their career and are now thinking to re-join. We are doing ‘Women on Wednesday’ program to encourage more women faculty members come on board.”

The topics that were discussed upon during the two-day conference included –

Seamless ITC – Realty check – Umesh Sharma, CCM – ICAI
Recent changes in GST – Manish Gadia, Past Chairman WIRC
Scrutiny of return and audit by Govt department – Virender Chauhan
Classification Concepts in GST – Viral Khandhar
Panel: Issue based case studies – Moderator: A. R. Krishnan; Panelists: CA. Rajat Talati,
Amitabh Khemka, CA. Jayesh Gogri
5 years of GST & new emerging opportunities for CA – Rajendra Kumar, CCM – ICAI
How to handle summons Assessments etc. – Rajiv Luthia
Time barring under GST – Bimal Jain
Landmark judgements under GST – Adv. V. Sridharan
Panel: Frauds & arrest under GST – Moderator: Pranav Kapadia, Panelist: CA. Sushil Solanki, CA. Adv. Dr. Avinash Poddar, Adv. Shailesh Sheth
The Chairman of the program was CA. Rajendra Kumar P. Chairman, GST & Indirect Taxes Committee of ICAI; Programme Co-Chairman was CA. Umesh Sharma, Vice Chairman, GST & Indirect Taxes Committee and Programme Coordinator was CA. Murtuza Kachwala, Chairman WIRC of ICAI.