WCOA 2022 3rd Day: Insightful sessions on Taxation Landscape in India, Global Economic Recovery among others.

WCOA 2022: 3rd day begins

The third day of the 21^st World Congress Of Accountants commenced on a positive note at the Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai, India. 

The delegates joined the discussion on Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship. It was addressed by none other than, Sridhar Vembu CEO of Zoho Corporation. Technology coming in has a lot of advantages just as much as it has many disadvantages, he expressed. 

The next session revolved around Enhancing the Startup Eco System. 

India became the third-largest startup ecosystem, just behind the US and China.  And it seems the pace of growth is not slowing down. CA. Sunil Goyal - Past President, ICAI, and CA. Suresh Prabhu - Former Union Minister provided their views on the growth drivers for a flourishing startup ecosystem.

In his speech, CA. Suresh Prabhu impressed upon the fact to have a technological shift in the new era of ecosystem and start-ups.

Taxation Landscape in India

Taxes contribute to the growth of the country’s economy.

The session on Taxation Landscape in India focused on the important role that ICAI is playing. ICAI is the Partner in Nation Building in direct and indirect tax reforms in India.

CA. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal - Chairman, Committee on International Taxation welcomed the delegates prior to starting his speech. He pointed out that in 1993 when international taxation was introduced in India we were tenth at that time. Now we are in the third position because of all-around development taking place in the world, said Sanjay Agarwal. 

CA. R Bupathy, Past President of ICAI addressed the theme. He believes that with regard to the taxpayer perspective, digitization era, business disruptions are many and profit margin is reduced. And we have to review the equalisation levy percentage.

CA. Rajendra Kumar P, Chairman of the GST & Indirect Taxes Committee joined in and stated that consumption taxes in the world should not be regressive.  

“ICAI imparts Knowledge sharing through publications and refresher courses on International Taxation to all its Members,” mentioned CA. Cotha S. Srinivas, Vice Chairman, Committee on International Taxation.

The speakers were presented with a memento after the session concluded.

Navigating the Global Economic Recovery 

The global economy has been going through some ups and down for the past several decades. What is the role of the accountancy profession as a trusted partner of the business community, as it recovers from the pandemic-induced slowdown? The session covered it all.

The following panellists gave us insights into the global recession caused by the pandemic, and the global economic recovery afterwards;

CA Piyush Goyal: Union Minister of Commerce & Industry - Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India

Sanjeev Sanyal: Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India

Dinesh Kumar Khara: Chairman, State Bank of India

M Ayhan Kose: Chief Economist and Director of Prospects Group, The World Bank Group

CA. Kamlesh S. Vikamsey: Past President, ICAI

CA. Piyush Goyal addressed the theme by stating that there is a lot of ambiguity around what is happening around the world. True leaders are born in situations of volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity.  

He believes that the Chartered Accountancy profession has the capability, educational skill and deep understanding, required to change the world.

“I would urge accountants across the globe to come together and harmonize financial reporting and ethical standards for synchronized accounting practices,” said CA. Piyush Goyal.

CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra, President of ICAI and CA. Aniket Talati, Vice President of ICAI felicitated CA. Piyush Goyal with a memento.

M Ayhan Kose shared his thoughts that we should take into account the policies of other countries as well for sustainability and development, alluding to this year’s WCOA theme, 'Building Trust Enabling Sustainability’.

He also pointed out that the Accountancy Profession has an important role in developing a Trust framework.

Enhancing Trust and Confidence in Sustainability Information

This Plenary Session discussed the road ahead for increasing trust in sustainability information through high-quality assurance and the global standard-setting activities of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

“Since the investors are worried about the reporting requirements to know about the organisation, so it is good to have reported everything about the organisation to create faith & to meet sustainable challenges,” stated Ms. Eastman - Head of Global Investor Engagement, PwC UK.

Agreeing with Ms Eastman was Tom Seidenstein - Chair of IAASB. He said that in order to ensure robust Assurance criteria, a lot of training & guidance are required for the people to recognise the reporting requirements.

The 3^rd day of WCOA 2022, came to an end with a beautiful Cultural Event & a Networking Dinner.