ICAI to train 15 lakh traders in next one year in GST Basics

Hyderabad, March 9 (Maxim News): The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, a statutory professional body established by a special Act of Parliament is to train 15 lakh traders across the country in next one year in GST Basics informed CMA Manas KR Thakur,

National President while addressing a press conference here in city today. We were among several other professioinal bodie who have been assigned this job by the government, he stated

Speaking further he added, that there were about 22 lakh indirect tax assesses currently across India. And once GST is implemented, this number will go anywhere upto 70 lakhs. So, Government want us to train traders and new assessees in familirising them with filling in forms etc. We have already commenced the training. We have trained four hundred people so far. We are creating a pool of trainers who would subsequently train others on the fundamental aspects of the Goods and Services Tax(GST), expected to come into force anytime soon in near future, informed Thakur.

He was addressing the press conference along with his colleagues Dr. PVS Jagan Mohan Rao, Central Council Member and Dr. R. Chandra Sekhar, Secretary and Chairman—Coaching Administration here in city on Wednesday.

Speaking about ICAI’s 70years growth journey he said that the Association made a humble beginning with 73 members and reached to the strength of 69000 plus members, around 475000 students, working through 4 Regional Councils and 92 chapters with 9 overseas centers. The CMA profession draws continuously from global best practices in financial and management accounting and retunes them according to the Indian environment taking into account the domestic contents and issues, he stated

Sharing recent developments, he stated that the Institute has incorporated a Section 8 Company to function as Insolvency Professional Agency (IPA) of the Institute under the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 and Rules and Regulations framed thereunder. A website of IPA www.ipaicmai.in has already been launched by the Institute that provides all sorts of details such as legal framework, eligibility criteria and other relevant information.

Government has established The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India in October 2016. This was done to consolidate and amend the laws relating to reorganization and insolvency resolution of corporate persons, partnership firms and individuals. The ICAI is on the advisory committee on Corporate Insolvency and Liquidation, the National President informed. We are one of the three members on the board, Thakur stated.

India has about 1000 insolvency professionals and more are in need. We are in the process of training more insolvency professionals, he stated.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt of India has appointed a task force to develop methods for ease of doing business in India. Currently in the list of 194 nations, India stands at 130. It is government’s endeavour to see that our rank reaches within the 50 limit. ICAI is the member in this task force, Thakur informed.

Ministry of Railways, Government of India has appointed ICAI to do activity based cost accounting. This will enable Railways Account Process better, he informed.

The Institute has developed Centers for Excellence which adopts any one domain of competency which is important for the national economy such as Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing sector, Risk & Enterprise Governance, Regulatory Roles or any other sector and functions as an autonomous center to carry out research, organise programs and bring out publications on the focused domain activity. Hyderabad and Cochin are active centers while some others are in various stages of development informed CMR Manas KR. Thakur. Currently we have 14 centers in 14 states across the country. The center in Hyderabad is located at Gachibowli.

We are working in close coordination with State Governments in Capacity Building. The Institute is organising series of capacity building training programs through different modes including seminars, webinars, workshops and conferences etc he stated and thereby we wanted to enhance the image of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

The Institute has been working continuously to strengthen the cost competitiveness of Indian industry by inculcating cost management focus through propagating best practices in cost management and cost accounting / auditing. The Institute feels very strongly that Resource Optimization should be made necessary in Government establishments covering their programs and schemes by adoption of suitable CMA techniques targeting growth & efficiency and ensuring timely and effective societal welfare. CMA techniques accurately links responsibilities with resource decisions and provide the decision maker transparent and relevant information.

Institute is exploring its role in the area of Socio-economic cost benefit analysis. It can be applied to both Public & private investments, since the Government plays a significant role in the economic development and private investments are also approved by various Governmental agencies. The prime focus of this analysis will be to determine economic benefits of such projects and their impact on the livelihood & benefits to the society.

Institute has planned to set up a state-of-the-art Cost & Management Accountants Labs (CMA Lab) to support members and students of the Institute. Objective of this concept is to provide one point support with regard to professional avenues, standards, law of land, tools and knowledge repositories he stated.

The MARF arm of the Institute is undertaking research studies to propagate the Cost Consciousness and Cost Culture amongst the Government departments, Mr. Thakur said. (Maxim News)