Dear Friends and Professional Colleagues,

"Success is achieved by development of our strengths, not by elimination of our weakness."
     - Marilyn Vos Savant

The Statutory Bank Audits made the first week of April a shade busy, as many auditors had to travel across the length and breadth of the country to complete their Statutory Bank Audit compliances.
Mid April has witnessed a slew of New Year celebrations... beginning from Poila Baishakh, Bihu, Baishakhi Puthandi Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Cheti Chand and a few others from the North of the country to the South.The celebrations reinforce our faith in life, in hope and all things good and new. Despite the unfortunate happenings in and around our country, we are full of hope of a new beginning, which such New Years signify. I am confident that with a growing youth population, we are headed for brighter days, as more youngsters take up positive and meaningful roles in the society, profession, business, politics and a host of other social activities. It is a very healthy sign for our nation.

I have been fortunate to get every possible support and from all quarters, be it the council member, staff of ICAI, faculty members of our training programs and students at every level and some very attractive speakers who have conducted seminars, workshops and a host of programs attractively. During the past month, we have been able to conduct the following:

1.Revision in School Audit Fees

After a long gap of 32 years, we have managed to revise the School Audit Fees with the concerned departments. Needless to mention, they had been abysmally low with a poor pattern of reimbursements, making it incredible to take up such assignments by auditors. The undersigned alongwith Regional Council Member CA Manish Goyal met with Rajesh Kr Sinha, IAS, Commissioner, School Education & Ex-Officio Secretary,Deptt.of School Education and his team at Bikash Bhawan,Salt Lake,Kolkata and have been able to convince them to accept our suggestions and have also initiated a more meaningful and strategic modus operandi of allotting school audits. This would iron out deficiencies in the existing system, and I am sure that the auditors will play a more positive role in doing their part in such audits with the audit fees being revised reasonably well to meet current day expenses and expectations.The Notification in this regard is due in coming month.

2.Meeting with Mr Balbir Punj,Member Rajya Sabha

We had a very meaningful interaction with Mr Balbir Punj,Member,Rajya Sabha. At the said interaction, which happened at EIRC premises, he met some members of our fraternity and the subsequent interaction was engaging. We also represented our concern with respect to some provisions of Companies Bill which is pending in Rajya Sabha through our Past Chairman,CA Debashish Mitra and which was well appreciated and assurance was given that he will definitely look into it.

3.Meeting with Shri Suhsil Kr Modi,Chairman,Empowered Committee on GST and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar

The undersigned alongwith CA Subhash Ch Saraf,Vice-Chairman,EIRC and CA P.D.Rungta, Secretary,EIRC met Shri Suhsil Kr Modi at Hotel Park in Kolkata on 27th April,2013 and shared some concern of GST.He also assured us to give a visit at our Institute in his next visit in Kolkata.

4.Refurnished EIRC Auditoriun (R Singhi Hall)

The EIRC Auditorium needed a face lift which finally happened. The newly refurnished hall was inaugurated by our President and Vice President on 8th April,2013. They were ppreciative of the work done. I am confident that the new look would gladden the hearts of both members and students who use the same for a host of seminar, programs and the like.

5.Orientation Programme of Branch Managing Committee Memebrs

An Orientation Program with the Branch Managing Committee was held on 8th April,2013 and the same was very fruitful.All the Managing Committee of all Eight Branches were present there which was addressed by CA Subodh Kr Agarwal, President, CA K Raghu, Vice President, CA Abhijit Bandhopadhyay and CA Sumantra guha,Central Council Members and undersigned alongwith All Regional Council Members.

6.Seminars/Symposia and Workshops

1. We conducted Two Day Seminar on Service Tax, getting an excellent response in form of 450 registrations at the venue of – Vidya Mandir with host of National Speakers of the subject like CA J K Mittal and CA Ashok Batra from Delhi and CA Madhukar Hiregange and CA T R Rajesh Kumar from Banglore.
2. Another Full Day Seminar on VAT Audit with VAT Mock Board Proceddings which was presided by Mr Ashok Kr Mandal,Hon’ble President,WBCTARB and Mr Ashok Kr Bag,Hon’ble Member,WBCTARB along with DR and AR which received a good response from our members.

Now please look at lots of Forthcoming Events lined up for the month :

1. The S Vaidyanath Aiyer Memorial Lecture is scheduled on 3rd May, to be held at Vidya Mandir and will be addressed by CA. S Gurumurthy of Chennai, on the topic of – "Igniting Chartered Accountants Mind."
2. A Two-Day Training Program for Chartered Accountants who have freshly commenced practice within a span of three years has been organized on 18th and 19th of May. It is a novel initiative, and am sure that it will add considerable value to young and newly qualified Chartered Accountants in practice.
3. On the 17th May, 'Train the Trainers Program', will be organized, wherein experts from different fields will train the existing speakers on various subjects and those who wish to be speakers in respect of any particular subject.
4. We have framed an Annual Membership Scheme for attending workshops/seminars of EIRC, the details are mentioned in the newsletter elsewhere.It will make for both an interesting and informative reading.
5. Rabindra Nazrul Sandhya has been planned to be celebrated with fervor in the month of May.
6. We have structured a Residential Seminar at Mayfair Gangtok for 3 days and 2 nights for the benefits of Members and their family in the last week of June, the details are mentioned in this newsletter, which might be of interest to the readers.
7. International Conference of CA Students has been planned to be held on 13-14th August, at Science City.The program details will be published shortly.I fervently request all members to motivate their articles/students for active participation and be proactive in making this very special event a resounding success as it is being organized First time in our Region.

I take this opportunity to wish all members, the best for a healthy, peaceful, prosperous and a happy New Year. May it usher in the Lord’s choicest blessings upon them and their families for a safe and purposeful future.

I take this opportunity to wish all members, the best for a healthy, peaceful, prosperous and a happy New Year. May it usher in the Lord’s choicest blessings upon them and their families for a safe and purposeful future.

Sincerely yours,

CA.Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal
Chairman, EIRC