Saturday, February 20, 2010

Extention of last date for online submission of form with the O/o C&AG of India - (16-02-2010)

Last date for online submission of form with the O/o C&AG of India for getting empanelled for appointment as auditors of Government Companies/Corporations for the year 2010-2011 has been extended upto 18th February 2010 (05.30 PM).

Source Link : http://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=5474&c_id=219

Latest Empanelment Form for Observer & Coordinator - May 2010 CA Exams - (12-02-2010)

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EMPANELMENT OF MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE TO ACT AS COORDINATORS/ OBSERVERS IN THE CENTRES CONDUCTING CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS EXAMINATIONS

The Institute intends to draw a Panel from amongst its Members for acting as Coordinator/ Observer at the examination centres in various cities during the examination days.

Members who are interested to act as Coordinator/ Observer at the examination centres during the examination days may download the attached Empanelment Form and send the same to:
Shri G. Somasekhar, Additional Secretary (Exams),
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India,
Post Box No. 7112, Indraprastha Marg,
NEW DELHI – 110002 or

by e-mail to: examcoob@icai.in or
by fax on (0120) 3054843/ 841
so as to reach on or before 25th March 2010.

DGFT -Circular on Confirming Membership of CAs

Government of India
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
(Department of Commerce)
Directorate General of Foreign Trade
Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi 110 011

Dated 9th February, 2010
Circular No. 23 /2009-2014

To
All Regional authorities

Subject: Confirming membership of Chartered accountants with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has informed that with a view to strengthening the process of certification being issued by chartered accountants, they have hosted a link http://220.227.161.82/locm.asp on ICAI website, to enable anyone to seek confirmation to the effect that certificate received by him has been issued by a member of the Institute holding full time Certificate of Practice (i.e. a member authorized to issue such a certificate). This will ensure that none of the authorities act on the certificates issued either by non members or members not holding Certificate of Practice.

All RAs to make use of the above facility to confirm about the membership of the chartered accountants.
This issues with the approval of competent authority.

Sd/-
(Rajiv Arora)
Joint Director General of Foreign Trade
(Issued from File No. 01/93/180/66/AM-10/PC-2(B)

ICAI - President and Vice President for 2010-11

CA. Amarjit Chopra elected as President of ICAI
and
CA. G. Ramaswamy elected as Vice-President of ICAI

About the PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT :

CA. Amarjit Chopra, a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), with more than three decades of standing, has been elected as the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), for the year 2010-11 by the Twenty First Council on February 12, 2010. During his tenure in the Central Council, he has been the Chairman of Accounting Standards Board, Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, and Corporate Laws Committee for two years each and has been the Chairman of Expert Advisory Committee, Financial Reporting Review Board, Committee on Corporate Governance and Committee on Internal Audit for an year each.

He was nominated by the Punjab Government on the Committee for fixing the fee for the medical institutions. He was nominated to the Consultancy Syndicate and Energy Syndicate of the MOU TASK FORCE for the years 2008-09 and 2009-2010 respectively constituted by the Department of Public Enterprises.

He has been a speaker in International Conferences on Quality Control of Audit and Corporate Governance convergence with IFRS at Dubai, Karachi, Sri Lanka and London. He is also a Technical Advisor to International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board as ICAI representative.

He was actively involved in teaching for more than 20 years at Delhi University and is presently visiting faculty to some Management Institutes. He has been delivering lectures in training programmes at various banking institutions and C&AG Office. He is on the Board of various reputed companies including RICO Auto Ltd. He was a Central Government nominee on the Board of Bank of Baroda for a period of three years up to October, 2009 wherein he was also the Chairman of the Audit Committee.

CA.G.Ramaswamy, a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), with more than two decades of standing, has been elected as the Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), for the year 2010-11 by the Twenty First Council on February 12, 2010.

During his tenure in Central Council, he has held important positions in Standing and Non Standing committees of the ICAI viz. Member of Disciplinary Committee (Old and new mechanism) and Examination Committee, etc. He has served as Chairman Fiscal Laws Committee. His has made noteworthy contributions as Vice Chairman for Committee on Accounting Standards for Local Bodies, Audit Committee and Committee on International Taxation. He was the nominated member of SAFA Committee for improvement in Transparency, Accountability and Governance.

CA G. Ramaswamy has the distinction of being the 1st nominated member of the Quality Review Board, an external body constituted under the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Act, 2006 to act as an oversight body of the profession.

During the term 2004-07, he was a member of the Disciplinary Committee continuosly for 2 years. He was the Chairman of Continuing Professional Education Committee and Vice Chairman-Committee on Information Technology, Committee on Corporate Governance, Fiscal Laws Committee, Commerce Education and Career counseling. He was nominated as Vice Chairman in SAFA Centre of Excellence on Standards and Quality Control and as a member of SAFA task force.

During the term 2007-10, he was a member of Board of Discipline, ICAI-ICSI-ICWAI Co-ordination Committee, Committee on Ethical standards, Committee for Members in Industry, HR and Admin Committee, Committee of Direct and Indirect Taxes Committee for SMP’s, Research Committee, Representation Committee, Committee on Insurance and Pension, etc. He also worked as member of International Affairs committee, FRRB, Editorial Board, Corporate and Allied Laws Committee, etc. During these two terms, he served as a member of Professional Development Committee, Audit committee, Continuing Professional Education Committee, AASB. He has also served in various sub groups of ICAI on Service tax, CES, DTC, CA (Amendments) Act of ICAI and worked as Chairman SIRC Audit committee of ICAI.

During his tenure as Chairman of SIRC of ICAI in 1999-00, SIRC bagged the best Regional Council award . He served as a member of the Southern India Regional Council (SIRC) of the ICAI from 1994-2000. He was the Chairman of Coimbatore Branch of ICAI from 1988-89 and as a member of Managing Committee of the Coimbatore Branch of SIRC of ICAI for the period 1984-89.

CA.G.Ramaswamy was born in 1954 and hails from Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. A practicing Chartered Accountant since 1984 he is a also a fellow member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India ( ICSI).

He was also the member of Body of Board of Governors of Institute of Internal Auditors, [IIA]-Chennai. He has vast experience in the field of taxation, company law matters, audit and internal audit, management and tax consultancy for more than two decades.

CA. G. Ramaswamy is a prolific speaker having addressed various National and International Conferences on Accounting and Auditing Standards, Taxation, Company Law matters, Banking and topics in relation with profession.

A keen golfer, he is a member of various social clubs and organizations.He has widely traveled and visited number of foreign countries and was part of internationd delegations and study tours.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Bank Branch Auditors' Panel for the year 2009-2010 - Unique Code Number

Know your Unique Code Number for Bank Branch Auditors' Panel for the year 2009-2010 -
(09-02-2010)

Source Link : http://www.meficai.org/new_unique_codes.jsp

Datas in Excel Format, Download at :
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B-0hzoMM8_XZYThlNjMzZWUtNDk4Yi00YmM4LTk0MzktZTBkYTVlM2FmZjdj&hl=en

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

ICAI bars 2 after holding them guilty in GTB case - The Economic Times - New Delhi - 04-Feb-2010


















Source : http://www.icai.org/news.html?news=3146

Related news:
http://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=5439&c_id=238

Core group agrees on roadmap for convergence with IFRS

The Core Group constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for convergence of Indian Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from April, 2011 has agreed that there will be two separate sets of accounting standards under section 211 (3C) of the Companies Act, 1956.

This was decided at a meeting of the Core Group held on January 11 in view of the roadmap for achieving convergence, an official press release said.

According to it, the first set would comprise the Indian Accounting Standards which are converged with the IFRS, which shall be applicable to the specified class of companies.

The second set would comprise the existing Indian Accounting Standards and would be applicable to other companies, including small and medium companies (SMCs).

The first set of Accounting Standards (converged accounting standards) will be applied to specified class of companies in phases:

a) Phase-I:- The following categories of companies will convert their opening balance sheets as at April 1, 2011, if the financial year commences on or after April 1, 2011 in compliance with the notified accounting standards which are convergent with IFRS. These companies are:-\
a. Companies which are part of NSE – Nifty 50
b. Companies which are part of BSE - Sensex 30
c. Companies whose shares or other securities are listed on stock exchanges outside India
d. Companies, whether listed or not, which have a net worth in excess of Rs.1,000 crores.

(b) Phase-II :- The companies, whether listed or not, having a net worth exceeding Rs. 500 crores but not exceeding Rs. 1,000 crores will convert their opening balance sheet as at April 1, 2013, if the financial year commences on or after April 1, 2013 in compliance with the notified accounting standards which are convergent with IFRS.

(c) Phase-III :- Listed companies which have a net worth of Rs. 500 crores or less will convert their opening balance sheet as at April 1, 2014, if the financial year commences on or after April 1, 2014, whichever is later, in compliance with the notified accounting standards which are convergent with IFRS.

When the accounting year ends on a date other than March 31, the conversion of the opening Balance Sheet will be made in relation to the first Balance Sheet which is made on a date after March 31.

Companies which fall in the following categories will not be required to follow the notified accounting standards which are converged with the IFRS (though they may voluntarily opt to do so) but need to follow only the notified accounting standards which are not converged with the IFRS. These companies are: -
(a) Non-listed companies which have a net worth of Rs. 500 crores or less and whose shares or other securities are not listed on Stock Exchanges outside India.
(b) Small and Medium Companies (SMCs).

Separate roadmap for banking and insurance companies will be submitted by the Sub-Group I in consultation with the concerned regulators by February 28, 2010.

The draft of the Companies (Amendment) Bill, proposing for changes to the Companies Act, 1956 will be prepared by February, 2010 incorporating the recommendation of Sub-Group 1 Report.

Revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956 according to the converged Accounting Standards has been submitted by the ICAI to NACAS which, after review, will submit to the Ministry by January 31, 2010. Amendments to Schedule XIV will also be made in a time bound manner.

In respect of the converged Accounting Standards, the Chairman of the Accounting Standards Board of ICAI will submit the converged version of Accounting Standards to NACAS from time to time for recommendations and onward submission to Ministry. However, convergence of all the accounting standards will be completed by ICAI by March 31, 2010 and NACAS will submit its recommendations to the Ministry by April 30, 2010.

CBDT issues press release on extension of time for submission of ITR-V to CPC Bengaluru.

Central Board of Direct Taxes has decided to extend the time limit for filing ITR-V form relating to income-tax returns filed electronically (without digital signature) on or after 1st April 2009, up to 31st March 2010 or within a period of 120 days from the date of uploading of the electronic return data, whichever is later. The ITR-V form should continue to be sent by ordinary post to Post Bag No.1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru – 560100 (Karnataka). However, in cases where email acknowledgement for ITR-V form is not received by the taxpayer from the CPC Bengaluru, the taxpayer may send another duly signed ITR-V form by speed post to Centralized Processing Centre, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru, Karnataka – 560100.

This has been done in relaxation of the stipulation in Circular No. 3/2009 dated 21.05.2009 which allows taxpayers who file their income tax returns in electronic form without digital signature to submit their ITR-V form duly verified and signed, within a period of 30 days thereafter to Post Bag No.1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560100, by ordinary post.

The relaxation has been made following requests from taxpayers that, as a one-time measure, the time limit for filing of ITR-V form may be extended to 31st March 2010 and that alternative modes of submission of ITR-V form may also be provided in cases where an ITR-V form has not been received at CPC, Bengaluru by ordinary post.

To assist taxpayers, a limited call center service with two agents has been established at ITD-CPC, Bengaluru. Taxpayer queries on status of ITR-V receipt at CPC, Bengaluru will be answered on 080-43456700 between 9:30 AM to 6 PM between Monday to Friday. The service will be available in English, Hindi and Kannada.

CBDT Press Release on I-T refund fraud in Mumbai

No.402/92/2006-MC (05 of 2010)
Government of India / Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
***
New Delhi dated 25th January 2010
DRAFT PRESS RELEASE

On or about 12th January 2010, an officer in the Income Tax department, Mumbai, noticed that refunds had been issued from his jurisdiction without his knowledge or approval of his higher authorities. He immediately brought the matter to the notice of his superior officers.

2. On internal inquiry by the Income Tax department, it was found that User Ids and Passwords of certain officers had been fraudulently used to generate refunds in some cases. Upon detection of the fraud, the following actions were taken by the Income Tax department to contain the damage:-
(i) Stop payment orders were issued. As a result, refund outgo in at least two cases could be prevented.
(ii) Investigation and search action was undertaken by the Directorate of Income Tax (Investigation), Mumbai to detect the bank accounts to which the refunds had been credited and the beneficiaries.
(iii) I-T investigators have identified the bank accounts, beneficiaries and some of the scamsters involved.
(iv) Mumbai police and CBI Mumbai have been informed.

3. Further actions being taken to prevent the recurrence of such frauds are as follows:-
a) All high value refunds issued during the current financial year will be cross-verified.
b) The system of handling high value refunds will be replaced with a more robust and foolproof system.

Source: http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/archive/CBDT_PressRelease_01272010.pdf

CA T N Manoharan conferred with Padma Shri

The Government of India named CA T.N. Manoharan the first CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT from Tamil Nadu to be conferred with the Padma Shri award. Manoharan is based out of Chennai, India and was recently appointed as a board member of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services and later made as its chairman before the company was taken over by the Mahindra group. He is a distinguished professional and has several acheivements to his credit. Manoharan, 52, is a partner in Manoharan Chowdhry Associates. He is also the past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Very many Congratulations to CA. T.N. Manoharan on being conferred with the Padma Shri award.

Adjustment of advance tax in respect of fringe benefits for assessment year 2010-11 against advance tax

Section 115WM of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Income-tax on fringe benefits - Chapter XII-H not to apply after a certain date - Adjustment of advance tax in respect of fringe benefits for assessment year 2010-11 against advance tax

Circular No. 2/2010, dated 29-1-2010

The Finance Act, 2005 introduced a levy namely Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) on the value of certain fringe benefits as contained in Chapter XII H (Section 115W to 115WI) of Income Tax Act, 1961. By the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2009 a new Section 115WM was inserted to abolish the FBT with effect from Assessment Year (A.Y.) 2010-11. Consequently, benefits given to employees are taxed as perquisites in the hands of employees in terms of amendment to Clause 2 of Section 17 of Income Tax Act. 1961. However, during the current Financial Year 2009-10 some assessees have paid advance tax in respect of fringe benefits for Assessment Year 2010-11. In such cases the Board has decided that any installment of advance tax paid in respect of fringe benefit for A.Y. 2010-11 shall be treated as Advance Tax paid by assessee concerned for A.Y. 2010-11. The assessee can adjust such sum against its advance tax obligation in respect of income for A.Y. 2010-11 or in case of loss to claim such payment as refund as advance tax paid in A.Y. 2010-11.

2. This circular may be brought to the notice of all officers in the field for compliance.

Correspondence with regard to renumeration of statutory auditors of Government companies. - (05-02-2010)

Important Announcement: Relaxation of 9 months study course period to converted to IPCC students. - (08-02-2010)

BOS/Announcement/227/10
February 5, 2010

An Important Announcement for Students of Erstwhile Intermediate/ Professional Education (Course – II)/ Professional Competence Course (PCC) who have mean while converted to Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) – relaxation of nine months study course period to appear in the Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) examination to be held in May, 2010 and onwards.

Eligibility to appear in the May, 2010 and onwards Integrated Professional Competence Examination (IPCE):
All students who have been registered for the erstwhile Intermediate under paragraph 2 or 2 A of schedule B to the Chartered Accountants Regulations 28 or who have been registered for the erstwhile Professional Education (Course-II) or who have been registered for the Professional Competence Course (PCC) are eligible for conversion to Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) by paying the prescribed conversion fee along with the conversion application form obtained along with IPCC prospectus or downloaded from http://www.icai.org/resource_file/14262ipcc_re_regform.pdf - IPCC Re-Registration Form to be submitted to the concerned Regional Office for becoming eligible to appear in the May, 2010 and onwards examination before last date for submission of examination application form as notified from time to time.

Students so converted from erstwhile Intermediate/ Professional Education (Course – II)/ Professional Competence Course to Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) and have completed minimum period of nine months from the date of registration in Intermediate/ Professional Education (Course – II) or completed nine months after joining the Professional Competence Course are permitted to appear in the Integrated Professional Competence Examination to be held in May, 2010 and onwards. However, they should successfully complete 35 hours Orientation Programme and also 100 hours Information Technology Training before the commencement of relevant Integrated Professional Competence Examination (IPCE).

CA.R.Devarajan
Director, Board of Studies

Source Link : http://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=5453&c_id=219

Results for PE II / PCE / IPCC Exams - Nov 2009

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Has Declared Nov 2009 Examination Result On 1st Feb 2010.

Results for PE II / PCE / IPCC Exams


ICAI Results are available on - http://caresults.nic.in/


Coaching classes not permissible between 9.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m

Coaching classes not permissible between 9.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. - (28-01-2010)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attention of the members is drawn to Announcements dated 27th March 2009 and 19th May 2009 hosted on website of the Institute wherein the decision of the Council with regard to, inter-alia, working hours and coaching hours have been notified.

Normal working hours for the articled assistants shall not start after 11.00 AM and not end before 5.00 PM.

Coaching classes shall not continue after 9.30 AM and not start before 5.30 PM so as to enable the articled assistants to concentrate wholly on practical training.

Members of the Institute who are engaged in coaching be advised not to undertake coaching between 9.30 AM and 5.30 PM.

It may be stated a member of the Institute, whether in practice or not, shall be deemed to be guilty of professional misconduct if he contravenes any provision of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 or the Regulations framed thereunder or any guidelines issued by the Council.

Instances have come to notice that some members of the Institute continue to take classes for the students of the chartered accountancy course even between 9.30 AM and 5.30 PM which is against the guidelines issued by the Council of the Institute.

Accordingly, members who are engaged in coaching of chartered accountancy course beyond permissible hours are put on notice that they should, in their own interest, desist from taking classes between 9.30 AM and 5.30 PM failing which proceedings in accordance with Section 21 read with 22 will be initiated against such members as deemed to be guilty of professional misconduct.

The Council in its 291st meeting held recently has decided that surprise visits be made by a team of officials headed by the respective DCO Heads to coaching classes venues to identify the members who are still engaged in coaching classes beyond the permissible hours for initiating disciplinary proceedings.

President, ICAI
28th January, 2010

SEBI Circular on Internal Audit for Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs)

DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER
MARKET INTERMEDIARIES REGULATION AND SUPERVISION DEPARTMENT
SEBI/MIRSD/CRA/Cir-01/2010

January 06, 2010
All Credit Rating Agencies Registered with SEBI

Dear Sirs,
Sub: Internal Audit for Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs)

It has been decided in consultation with the credit rating agencies (CRAs) that the audit envisaged under Regulation 22 of the SEBI (Credit Rating Regulations), 1999 shall include an internal audit to be undertaken in the following manner:
a. It shall be conducted on a half yearly basis.
b. It shall be conducted by Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries or Cost and Management Accountants who are in practice and who do not have any conflict of interest with the CRA.
c. It shall cover all aspects of CRA operations and procedures, including investor grievance redressal mechanism, compliance with the requirements stipulated in the SEBI Act, Rules and Regulations made
thereunder, and guidelines issued by SEBI from time to time.
d. The report shall state the methodology adopted, deficiencies observed, and consideration of response of the management on the deficiencies.
e. The report shall include a summary of operations and of the audit, covering the size of operations, number of transactions audited and the number of instances where violations / deviations were observed while making observations on the compliance of any regulatory requirement.
f. The report shall comment on the adequacy of systems adopted by the CRA for compliance with the requirements of regulations and guidelines issued by SEBI and investor grievance redressal.

2. The time schedule for the internal audit shall be as under:
a. The CRA shall receive the report of the internal audit within two months from the end of the half-year.
b. The Board of Directors of the CRA shall consider the report and take steps to rectify the deficiencies, if any, and the CRA shall send an Action Taken Report to SEBI within next two months.

3. It is clarified that for the half-year October 2009 - March 2010, the CRA shall receive the report of the internal audit by May 31, 2010. Its Board of Directors shall consider the report and take appropriate measures to rectify the deficiencies and the CRA shall send the Action Taken Report to SEBI by July 31, 2010.

4. This circular is issued in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 11 (1) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 read with the provisions of Regulations 19(1), 20 and 22 of the SEBI (Credit Rating Agencies) Regulations, 1999 to protect the interest of investors in securities and to promote the development of and to regulate the securities market.

Yours faithfully,
PRASANTA MAHAPATRA