Girish's Blog

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 My Wishes and Hopes for a Happy New Year 1. Wish there are no natural or man made disasters in 2009. 2. Wish people realize that life is short and they make the best of it in the time available. 3. Wish people learn to love and respect other people whatever be their caste, creed, race, religion or color. 4. Wish people do not try to force their ideologies on others either through economic arm twisting or through direct violence. 5. Hope India votes with both her head and her heart to put in place a Government which will perform, deliver and be accountable to the people – (a bit difficult, I know) – but these are my wishes. 6. Hope the Indian economy does not falter and the stock market recovers during the year. 7. Wish the global economy lead by the USA does not go into recession – because if it does then the scenario would be too bleak to contemplate – that would defeat my wishes, so h...

It has been widely reported that Mayawati has been paying large amounts of advance tax on gifts received from her supporters on her birthday. Last financial year she had reportedly paid Rs. 15 cr as advance tax implying an income of Rs. 60 cr approximately. She has also gone on record that the gifts from her poor Dalit supporters range from Rs. 10 to Rs. 10000. Assuming people on an average gifted her Rs. 1000 each we are talking in excess of 600,000 donors and well wishers. When the income tax investigated her gifts, it has been reported that the addresses provided of the donors were all fake. It is also pertinent to discuss as to apart from Mayawati who else are the beneficiaries of this money game. What is the loss and gain of Dalits in this game of exchange of money? The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal dismissed the case against her as gifts could be an accepted form of income for a politician. I smell a rat in that decision. Can you imagine an individual, not in politics, putting il...

I have been thinking of writing on my first solo paragliding experience for quite some time now. My first brush with paragliding was in Manali – but it was so commercial and you had to double ride with the pilot. This was like just sitting and floating through the air. This is when I thought that it would be great if one could do it independently. As luck would have it Times of India which writes a weekly article on unique groups, wrote about Templepilots and how they teach people to fly at Lonavla. This being a couple of hours from Mumbai, I got in touch with them and signed up for the course after convincing my daughter to come with me. My younger daughter and wife agreed to accompany us for the three day weekend brush with flight. Remember Didarus and Icarus – well I was thinking of them when I left for the course. Off we left for Kamshet for our first brush with adventure sports!! On Friday, 9th May – we assembled at Rangoli restaurant at Kamshet, filled in the registration forms a...

INTRODUCTION I started out in practice with a very idealistic view of the profession. My articleship was done from a small firm wherein the major experience was in accounting and internal audit. There was no income tax experience whatsoever. Post qualification, I joined M/s A.F. Fergusons and gained tremendous exposure in audits of large companies. My performance as an audit manager, was noticed and I was sent on deputation to KPMG Peat Marwick in Malawi, Africa. I gained greater exposure and experience in how a scientific audit is carried out plus the degree of professionalism necessary to carry out independent audits. After I came back, I realised that starting my own practice would be a challenge which I would love to face even though this did not give me the exposure for tax practice, more of that later. The desire to be independent and the ability to think on one’s feet is a pre-requisite for setting up a successful practice. It is very important at the outset to assess your stren...

This article was published by Moneylife magazine on 18th March, 2007. With the easy availability of online trading facilities provided by various trading platforms such as ICICIDirect, Indiabulls, Kotak Mahindra, etc. the number of people joining the online trading bandwagon has gone up by leaps and bounds. Among those playing the markets online is a fair chunk of salaried employees. Many of these individuals have been introduced to futures and options. The retail trading volumes indicate that a lot of people are trying out this avenue to make money. This is all fine till it comes to generating the records one needs to provide the accountant to file the individual tax return. In my experience, I have always been unpleasantly surprised by the lack of awareness which individuals show when it comes to the income which needs to be disclosed and records maintained from short – long term capital gains and from speculation activities such as futures and options and intra-day trades. Most of t...

I had written this article earlier and it had been published by caalley.com. Thought of sharing it through my blog. Through the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990’s the role of the CFO – nomenclature then was Finance Controller - was more in the nature of arranging bank finance at reasonable costs for business growth, due to scarcity of growth capital due to tight liquidity conditions. It was more in the nature of a tactical, bean counting job. The CFO was primarily responsible for tedious budgeting and various accounting and internal reporting functions. The other expectation in those days was to have decent treasury management skills which helped in raising debt or equity capital and basic cash management. The CFO then was more of a workhorse than a show horse. The nineties was the decade of economic liberalization with the primary markets becoming an easy source of money for businesses as the regulatory environment was still in the formative stage. At this point in time the role of the...

For the last couple of days the visual and written media has been talking a lot of potential for war - that too during Christmas when one is supposed to pray and rejoice in the birth of Christ. We have seen politicians across the border change their tune rapidly the moment General Kayani started showing his true colors. Pakistan has a "functioning democracy" only in name - the true power has always been and always will be in the hands of the Military. Politicians in Pakistan are chameleons changing their color at all times to save their skin. This war mongering is akin to kids shouting from the rooftop their innocence when they have been caught doing an indiscretion. We have the Pakistani media obfuscating history by stating that they have never been agressors and always repelled attacks by a "Hindu" India! They forget that we have a larger Muslim population than Pakistan just as they conveniently forget that their arse has been whipped everytime they have tried mis...