SB A/C INTEREST-RBI NEW RULE

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday said that interest rates applicable on the domestic savings bank deposits will be determined on the basis of end-of-day balance in the account. While calculating interest on domestic savings bank deposits, banks are required to apply the uniform rate set by them on end-of-day balance up to Rs.1 lakh.

For any end-of-day balance exceeding Rs.1 lakh, banks could apply the differential rates as fixed by them.

"Banks may ensure that interest rate is applied on the end-of-day balances of all domestic savings deposit accounts and no discrimination is made at any of its offices. Prior approval of the Board/Asset Liability Management Committee (if powers are delegated by the Board) may be obtained by a bank while fixing interest rates on such deposits," the Reserve Bank added.

CHENNAI WEST STUDY CIRCLE MEETING 26-1-2012 AT 4 PM Recent developements TN

In case if there is a problem to reach to the study circle meeting, please contact any one of the core team of chennai west study circle whose mobile no given below

 

P  Raju Iyer   -9840235045

A Rengarajan  9381011200

A Mohan Kumar  9003012871

N Palaniappan   9940689633

IFAC Invites Nominations for IFAC International Gold Service Award in 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:

Laura E. Wilker

Head of Communications

+1-212-471-8707

laurawilker@ifac.org

 

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ACCOUNTANTS INVITES

NOMINATIONS FOR IFAC INTERNATIONAL GOLD SERVICE AWARD IN 2012

 

(New York, January 25, 2012) – The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the global organization for the accountancy profession with members and associates in 127 countries, has opened nominations for the 2012 IFAC International Gold Service Award.

The IFAC International Gold Service Award was established in 2010 to recognize outstanding individual contributions to the accountancy profession, including protecting the public interest; exemplifying professional conduct and ethics; exceptional quality of work; and/or, contributions to a particular project or initiative. Candidates may or may not be members of the accountancy profession, and contributions may or may not be made through IFAC.

The recipients of the IFAC International Gold Service Award in 2011 were Sir David Tweedie (United Kingdom) and Professor Stephen Zeff (United States).The awards were presented on November 16, 2011, at IFAC’s annual Council Meeting in Berlin, Germany, by Göran Tidström, president of IFAC.

Nominations from IFAC member bodies must be submitted to the chief executive officer of IFAC by March 15, 2012. The nomination should consist of a completed nomination form, available on the IFAC website, and a cover letter. The cover letter should include reasons why the member body believes that the individual should receive an award and must be signed by the president and/or chief executive, or their equivalents, of the member body. If a member body wishes to include other supporting material, it should not exceed two pages. Nominations received in a format other than the stipulated form will not be considered.

In addition to nominations from IFAC member bodies, IFAC’s Nominating Committee will identify and recommend candidate(s) for this award. The Nominating Committee will review the nominations, make the necessary inquiries, and recommend candidate(s), if appropriate, to the IFAC Board, which will make the final selection(s), if any, during its meeting in June 2012. The chief executive officer of IFAC will notify the selected candidate(s) in writing, and the president of IFAC will present the award(s) at the annual IFAC Council Meeting, to be held November 14-15, 2012.

About IFACIFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of 167 members and associates in 127 countries and jurisdictions, representing approximately 2.5 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

CA Club, Thrissur, has filed a writ petition in Kerala High Court against the notification issued by Kerala State Government imposing minimum wages in Offices of Chartered Accountants in Kerala State.

CA Club, Thrissur, has filed a writ petition in Kerala High Court against the notification issued by Kerala State Government imposing minimum wages in Offices of Chartered Accountants in Kerala State.

The writ petition was filed in Kerala HC on Tuesday, 24.01.2012 and was taken for hearing today ( Wednesday, 25.01.2012). 

Hon'ble High Court heard the petition partly and the hearing will continue on Friday (27.01.2012).

 

By CA. TONY.M.P

VAT consultancy service required

Dear All
 
Our Jaipur based client is looking for the
VAT Consultant at Gurgaon who can help in
getting registration and  compliance with
regular requirements.
 
Please suggest at my e-mail ID indu123@hotmail.com
 
With regards


 
PRAVIN SARASWAT
9829063908

KPMG's Jamil Khatri elevated

KPMG has elevated Mr Jamil Khatri, head of accounting advisory services (AAS) in India, as the global head of this practice. As the global head, he will have oversight for the entire AAS practice, which has revenues in excess of $875 million and more than 5,000 employees, informed sources said. Mr Khatri will continue to be based in Mumbai. He has been the face of KPMG's accounting and international reporting practice in India for 16 years.

Excel Bill Book Template for CAs V4.1.12

Dear Friends,

 

Over the last week, I have received multitude of feedbacks on the Template. Based on your rich feeds, Bill Book Template has been revised.

 

The Template now has the following features:

 

1. Auto Bill Number Generation except the first bill number which is allowed to be filled manually once only

2. Multi service billing (up to three fields)

3. Auto Service Tax Calculation based on choice

4. Conversion of Amount in figures to Amounts in Words

5. Summary of Bills generated in a separate table

6. Marking, colouring and striking through for subsequently cancelled Bills in Summary Sheet

7. Instructions

 

The Template is in Excel2007

 

While using save as function save it as Excel Macro enabled workbook (*.xlsm) and not as (*.xls)

 

Read Instructions Sheet First

 

Do let me know if you encounter any error or have any suggestion.

 

 

Regards

 

 

CA Ashutosh Lohani

15 Chandganj Garden, Lucknow

# +91-9415464475

__._,_.___

Bill Book Template for CAs V4.1.12.xlsm

CA loses Rs 1.41 lakh in net banking fraud

A chartered accountant employed with a Gurgaon-based MNC and resident of Vasant Kunj in New Delhi alleged that he was fleeced of R1.31 lakh through internet banking fraud.
According to victim Harsh Mehta, 27, the money was siphoned off from his salary account in the Gurgaon branch of
Standard Chartered Bank.
He also claimed to have lost Rs 10,654 on his credit card.

Shuttling between Delhi and Gurgaon to get a police complaint registered since Friday, the KPMG employee said his phone was first hacked and a one time password (OTP) obtained from the bank.

A case is yet to be registered and Mehta claimed that neither the mobile company nor the bank is helping him.

 
I do use internet banking but such a thing has never happened before. The hacker also got the bank SMS alert service deactivated, so I could not get messages notifying me of transactions, Mehta claimed.

On January 19 around 5 pm, I received an SMS from Airtel giving an ID for changing my SIM number. After that, there was no signal on my mobile. I was surprised as I had never made such a request. I contacted the Airtel customer care officer and he assured me that nothing would happen and they will keep a check, he said.

The next morning, I received an email from the bank showing unknown transactions to the tune of R1.31 lakh. The accused must have hacked my phone first, requested the bank for OTP, activated my SIM on his phone and then transferred funds to his account. As the bank limit was of R1 lakh per day, the accused transferred the amount till midnight. After that, he shifted the remaining balance of Rs 31,000. My credit card was also used for R10,650, the victim added.

Amitabh Jhunjhunwala: Journey from a CA to Anil Ambani's top man

Amitabh Jhunjhunwala: Journey from a CA to Anil Ambani's top man




MUMBAI: It's not just blind loyalty that keeps Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Anil Ambani together. Those who have seen the duo working together for years say it is a similar bent of mind that is responsible for the near-perfect fit. "There's nothing profound about his decision to follow Anil when the latter left Reliance Industries. Had he been an engineer, he would perhaps have continued with Mukesh," says a senior executive at the ADAG group.

The two met for the first time in the early 80s when Jhunjhunwala, as cofounder of a CA firm, visited Reliance, one of his clients. Ambani was then in charge of finance. Ambani was impressed and, by 1993, persuaded the young CA to join a fund house brotherin-law Shyam Kothari had founded called Kothari Pioneer.

A year and a half later, he came in as CEO of the newly-floated Reliance Capital, which started as a fund house and over the years transformed into a supermarket for financial services. Interestingly, Jhunjhunwala had co-founded the CA firm with Akhil Gupta, who is today to Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal what Jhunjhunwala is to Anil. Along with finance, the two share a passion for the entertainment business.

That explains Anil's determination to get a foot into the door of Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, the iconic Hollywood studio. Since that JV got underway , Jhunjhunwala has been closely involved with it; those working with him recall how he got misty-eyed when the studio received a letter from Neil Armstrong for the good restoration work of NASA's film on the first man stepping into the Moon.

Yet, on many fronts, they're as different as cheese is from chalk. Whilst the professional keeps a cool head, the promoter is known to be excitable ; Jhunjhunwala is a light eater, the latter loves food; the former shies away from the limelight-he refused to comment to ET for this feature -- the chairman has thrived in it. Those who work around the duo point out that Ambani has played to Jhunjhunwala's strengths and accordingly given him responsibilities.

For instance, his passion for human capital convinced the promoter to put him at the helm of businesses like media and entertainment and financial services. That gambit has worked at Reliance Capital, which with Jhunjhunwala as CEO diversified into life and general insurance; he also took Reliance MF to the top of the fund house sweepstakes. He built the entertainment business from scratch: the group acquired Adlabs in 2005.

Now it's into radio, multiplex and film production. The creative and artistic bent may be courtesy of his mother, says a close friend of Jhunjhunwala, who was a journalist of repute, a Padma Shri awardee and an organiser of Kavi Sammelans at their Delhi residence. In fact, Jhunjhunwala even published a finance magazine called Money Matters for a year before he joined Kothari Pioneer.

People who work with him at the entertainment venture say Jhunjhunwala looks forward to meeting Spielberg -- they meet least once a quarter -- and relishes the opportunity of meeting Hollywood stars who feature in DreamWorks' movies. Back home, however, the realities for the group are not all rosy. For starters, the combine has to find a way to reduce the mounting debt at Reliance Communications ; at last count it stood at Rs 39,000 crore, Rs 10,000 crore more than its top line and two times its market value.

Sebi moves Supreme Court against PW in Satyam case

Sebi on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the sectoral tribunal’s order that allowed audit firm Price Waterhouse to cross-examine the accused in the Rs 7,000-crore Satyam Computer Services scam, including Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju.
The Securities Appellate Tribunal in June last year had asked Sebi to allow Price Waterhouse, the scam-tainted company’s external auditor, to cross-examine Ramalinga Raju, his brother and managing director B Rama Raju, and former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas. It also asked Sebi to furnish copies of their statements to Price Waterhouse, if necessary.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia asked Attorney General GE Vahanvati and counsel Pratap Venugopal, appearing for Sebi, to apprise the court of the scope of enquiry into the matter under the Sebi Act, and the consequences of the criminal prosecution initiated by CBI and the proceedings initiated by ICAI. Such clarity is required so that no confusion is created resulting in the accused getting away, it said.
Sebi had relied on the statements of Raju and the other accused to issue show-cause notices to Price Waterhouse asking them why they should not be debarred from carrying

FASB: Management Not Required to Report Going-Concern

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has announced that management will not be required to disclose a going concern if there is substantial doubt about an entity’s ability to continue.   The board decided that users of financial statements would be better served with ongoing disclosures about risks and uncertainties, rather than a disclosure made only after management finds there is doubt about the entity’s future viability.  

FASB first opened the issue with a Proposed Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, Going Concern, on October 9, 2008.  The proposal would have required an entity’s management to consider all available information about the future, which was defined as at least 12 months from the end of the reporting period.  

FASB received comments from 29 respondents, the majority of which generally supported the proposal.  However, some respondents questioned the wording of “all available information” as being too broad.  In addition, several respondents were concerned with the amount of the time and resources an entity would need to devote to properly determine its own viability over a 12-month period.  

Currently, the U.S. standard guidance on going concern is provided by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).  The AICPA’s Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) no. 59 says that an auditor is responsible for determining going concern during a financial statement audit, with a reasonable period for a company’s viability being not more than one year beyond the date of the financial statements being prepared.   

FASB has also determined that an entity should prepare financial statements on the going-concern basis until a plan of liquidation is approved by the owners or is imposed by an outside entity.  

For more on the FASB’s announcement, please see the Journal of Accountancy.

CA OPINION & TAX PENALTY

Placing reliance on the opinion of a chartered accountant will not absolve the taxpayer from penal consequence for apparent incorrect claim. Thus decided the Delhi Bench of appellate tribunal in the Chadha sugars (P) Ltd case on December 23, 2011.

The concealment penalty was with regard to Rs 7.81 lakh claimed as expenditure for fee paid to the Registrar of companies for enhancing the authorised capital of the company. The tax officer held that in spite of direct apex court decisions, the taxpayer had persisted with the claim, taking shelter under the opinion of a chartered accountant. It had been opined by the CA that the issue is debatable and that the claim could be made in the financial statements. No direct reference was made with regard to claim for income-tax purposes. And, the tax auditor too did not make any reference to the correctness of the claim in his report.

As the tax payer had not given any explanation for claiming a prima facie inadmissible deduction and had persisted with the claim, the tribunal upheld the levy of penalty. Commenting on the case, Mr V. K. Subramani, an Erode-based chartered accountant, says it is unfortunate that the tax auditor had not reported the applicability of deduction under Section 35D in his tax audit report. "That would have cautioned the taxpayer against preferring the claim of deduction. Considering the apex court decision in the Brooke Bond Ltd case (225 ITR 758), the taxpayer must have desisted from making a claim prima facie not permitted."

The CA Institute has approved three guidance notes that could have significant bearing on how economic activities in the real estate, oil and gas and other energy related sectors

The CA Institute has approved three guidance notes that could have significant bearing on how economic activities in the real estate, oil and gas and other energy related sectors are accounted by companies.

The Central Council has approved guidance notes on real estate, rate regulated activities like gas and also on carbon emissions, Mr G Ramaswamy, CA Institute President told Business Line here after the meeting.

In the case of real estate sector, the guidance note will help bring uniformity in the way real estate companies recognise their incomes. Currently, there is no uniform system for recognition of income by real estate companies, Mr Ramaswamy pointed out.

All the guidance notes issued by the CA institute are mandatory on its members. Companies that do not adopt the accounting principles suggested by the guidance note run the risk of their financial statements getting qualified by statutory auditors.

CAs to upgrade their skills

The profession of chartered accountancy is facing stiff competition and chartered accountants need to upgrade their skills to face the emerging challenges. They must equip themselves to become global accounting professionals and ICAI must become a global accounting profession said Mr G. Ramaswamy, President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Dedicating a new building at the ICAI Bhavan here recently, he said that ICAI has signed agreements with accounting firms in other countries such as England and there is a move to adopt an Indian version of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), principles-based standards, interpretations and the framework adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board.

While professional membership has exponentially increased, 90 per cent of the present members are into private employment with corporates or partnerships with a very few into public practice. Senior members should encourage the youngsters to take to public practice, he urged.

Mr K. Shanmukha Sundaram, Chairman of Southern Indian Regional Council, ICAI, said that the Institute has been focussing on creating infrastructure and IT facility in all branches across the country and working towards creating awareness about Chartered Accountancy.

Health Insurance Scheme for Members & Students of ICAI

The Committee for Capacity Building of CA Firms and Small & Medium Practitioners ( CCBCAF & SMP), ICAI has taken a major initiative for arranging Health Insurance Scheme through New India Assurance Co. Ltd., Mumbai, for Members & Students of ICAI. The Aforesaid scheme was launched on 6th January, 2012 during the International Conference at Chennai.

Click here for Brief details about the Health Insurance Scheme

Click here for Premium Chart for Students & Members of ICAI

Click here for the Proposal

Important Announcement - Non-applicability of Revised Schedule VI for May 2012 Examinations.

Important Announcement - Non-applicability of Revised Schedule VI for May 2012 Examinations. - (29-12-2011)

Important Announcement for PCC/IPCC & Final Students This is to bring to the attention of students that the Revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956 issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 28th February, 2011 pertaining to the preparation of Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account under the Companies Act, 1956 for the financial year commencing on or after 1.4.2011 shall not be applicable for the PCC, IPCC and Final examinations to be held in May 2012. Director, Board of Studies

ACCOUNTING FOR EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITY

ACCOUNTING FOR EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITYThe 25 per cent rupee depreciation against the dollar from a 2011 period high of 54.9785 to a 2011 period low of 43.8550 has taken most of us by surprise. Conservative companies looked at dollar borrowings as a means to reduce the overall cost of borrowing without taking exchange rate positions. For example, instead of taking rupee loans, they have taken dollar loans, fully hedged them to the rupee and reduced the overall cost of borrowing by 200 basis points or so. Other companies looked at dollar borrowings as an attractive proposition because of low interest rates; hoped that the exchange rates would remain stable and did not hedge their positions to make that big kill. Unfortunately, luck proved us wrong!

EXCHANGE LOSSES

Unhedged positions result in huge foreign exchange losses on foreign currency borrowings due to rupee fall. AS-11 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates initially required such losses to be recognised immediately and fully in the P&L. However, standard setters felt that if one were to take a long term view, exchange rates remained stable; and hence financial statements should be kept out of the volatility. For example, the dollar-rupee exchange rate at the end of 2005 and 2010 was around Rs 45. Nonetheless, in between it was as low as Rs 39.47 at end of 2007 and as high as Rs 52.09 at end of March 2009. This volatility was meaningless to a borrower that took a five year dollar term loan at the end of 2005, since he would have received and paid Rs 45 for a dollar. Accordingly AS 11 was amended on March 31, 2009 to allow capitalisation/amortisation of the exchange differences. Such capitalisation/amortisation is not permitted under IFRS; which requires all exchange gains/losses to be recognised immediately in the P&L. Since it was intended to move to IFRS, from April 1, 2011, this option was restricted to March 31, 2011. As IFRS did not take place in 2011, the option was further extended to March 31, 2012. In a notification dated December 29, 2011, the MCA has extended the option to 2020. This notification will also allow companies to use the capitalisation/amortisation policy, even if they had not used such an option earlier.

SMOOTHENING DIFFERENCES

The policy to amortise/capitalise exchange differences is not new to India. It was enshrined in Schedule VI of the Companies Act in the late 60's to tackle the then devaluation of the Indian rupee. Some may argue that the option to defer exchange differences on long term monetary items is given with an intention to provide relief to companies who want to smoothen the impact of exchange differences on its statement of profit and loss. Notwithstanding the intention, amortisation will not result in smoothening in all cases. If exchange rates show an increasing trend then exchange difference impact of earlier years will cause a major dent in subsequent years close to repayment of those long term monetary items. For example if a company took a loan of $100 in year 1999-2000, repayable after 3 years when exchange rate was 1$= Rs 43. Exchange rate at end of year 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2001-02 were Rs 43.63, Rs 46.46 and Rs 48.89 respectively. If the company does not avail the amortisation option, it will charge off exchange loss of Rs 63, Rs 283, Rs 243 in each of the year respectively. With the use of option, charge to P&L in each of the year will be Rs 21, Rs163 and Rs 406 respectively. It is clear that use of option will lead to a significant backloading of charge of earlier years in certain scenarios.

FULL RECOGNITION

Further, whilst smoothening may be preferred by some preparers of financial statements, what is relevant to investors and analyst is a full recognition policy, as that depicts the position of the company as at a particular date, which an amortisation policy distorts. Assuming all things remain the same, a company would be preferred by an investor if it did not have a carry forward exchange loss. Whilst there is no end to such debates, it should be kept in mind that companies that use the capitalisation/amortisation policy are required to make full disclosures in the financial statements. This will be useful to investors, to take appropriate calls on their investments. - www.thehindubusinessline.com

CPE Teleconference on "Recent Developments in Peer Review" on 25th January, 2012

 

Dear Members,

 

 

Next CPE Teleconference on "Recent Developments in Peer Review” on Wednesday, 25^th January, 2012 from 11am to 1pm at IGNOU, New Delhi.

 

 

CA. Avichal SN. Kapur

CHAIRMAN

LUCKNOW BR. OF CIRC OF ICAI

ICAI enters into an arrangement with TAXMANN to provide the contents of its website only at Rs.3500/- to the members of ICAI

For details visit the following url: http://www.icai.org/new_post.html?post_id=8063&c_id=219

PRESCRIBED FORMAT FOR CPE HOURS

From year 2011 a new cpe block is start ie we shall get 90 cpe hrs in the block year 2011, 2012 & 2013 and 20 in each seperate year. we can get 10 unstructured CPE hours on sending a self declaration form to The Secretary (CPE), The Institute of Chartered accountants Of India, Indraprastha marg, New Delhi for the year 2011. The last date of sending self declaration is 31st may, 2012. This CPE Hrs. is totally free.