Volume
15
Issue
286 / 2023
March
2023
Quote of the day
"Do not live someone else's life and someone else's idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you"
- Viola Davis
“I waited for 30 years to realise my dream” said Rachel Shetty, Team Manager of the U19 Women’s cricket team which won the first ever U19 World Cup in January, 2023. What was her dream ? of wearing the India team’s blue jersey. She dreamt of it as a 23 year old and had to wait for 30 years to see it coming true – not as a player but as a manager and coach. In the interim, Rachel donned many hats of a wife, mother, corporate honcho, motivational speaker, Professor of Sports Management and Lions club leader travelling across the world. All along, her dream, her desire was kept alive AND she was working towards the same in different ways !
This was one of the key messages from the dynamic, effervescent and articulate Rachel on the eve of #IWD2023, celebrated by the Bangalore chapter of ICSI, where many women (including me) with 20+ years in the profession of company secretary were felicitated. It is worth recalling her talk on this occasion, as she narrated her personal experience interacting with the U19 girls who are predominantly from the hinterland of India.
Archana Devi didn’t have money to travel by bus. Her mother (who wears a gunghat) is her biggest strength. She faced the village community’s barbs that she sold her daughter to someone in Kanpur, until they all saw the girl play in the winning U19 cricket team. She persisted that her daughter must win her place in the team and wear the blue jersey.
Falak Naz is from a family that lives in a 250 sq.ft house and has fought the odds to break out of her community’s restrictions to play. So have her parents who have a meagre income. Rachel has taken it upon herself to mentor the girls and support them in every possible way. She ensured Falak gets her space to do her namaz and learn basics of English to converse. She even helped her and the other teens in the team prepare their invoices. This she says has bonded them better.
Najla, a Keralite teen in the team has a father working as a coolie and a home maker mother. They had mortgaged their property to send Najla for training. So when the player received Rs. 23 lac as part of the Rs. 5crore award amount announced to the team by BCCI, she was quite lost. Never had she seen such a money in her life nor dreamt of. I guess she couldn’t have imagined the number of zeroes in front of ‘23’. Confused, she approached Rachel innocently with a ‘what-do-I-do-with-this-money-face’. Rachel advised her to give Rs. 10 lac to her parents to get the property papers released from the loan sharks and keep the balance in a fixed deposit, lest ‘relative-vultures’ snoop in on her for the money. Rachel feels such small but timely and significant support greatly satiating.
Narrating few more such instances from her close interactions with the 16 year olds, Rachel admitted that cricketing journey has taught her humility, with stories of innocent girls imprinted in her mind. It is from their lives that we can learn a lot – a life of dreams, hard work, resilience, grit, sacrifice and success.
Urging all of us to do some service for atleast 1 hour a day, she shared her experience of teaching English to the girls free of cost apart from being the team manager. The anecdotes of their struggle to ask for simple things like omelette or juice in restaurants and international flights (because of language issue) were amusing but it brought out the importance of communication and being able to articulate what one wants. And of course her own ways of empowering them as part of the grooming.
Rachel’s message to the women –
Remove the veil of age. Learn from youngsters.
Don’t give up on dreams. Keep working at them until they materialise.
Develop good communication skills.
Exhibit good team spirit.
Resolve conflicts internally and externally at home and work place.
Come out of the comfort zone, ‘raise your hand’ (meaning volunteer, take the initiative) if you want to take up something.
Communicate what you want clearly – to your spouse, parents so that they help you realise your dreams. You don’t get unless you ask.
Do one small thing a day without monetary expectation – Service with a smile. This creates a bond.
Rachel is proud that from a TIME when girls could only have a peek at the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium since they were not allowed inside to NOW where she can speak to all of them inside the stadium, she has come a long way. So has the women’s cricketing journey. She is a proud blue jersey wearer and has proved that “She has become an overnight success after 30 years” !!
If you are inspired by this talk, do stay on to catch up with the regulatory updates for March, 2023 as FY22-23 draws to a close with many hits and misses – globally perhaps the latter though India continues to be the star of hope !
For any previous issues of Samhita and the readers’ feedback, please visit http://www.sharadasc.com/resource-center/.
Happy Reading,
S.C. Sharada
Regulatory Updates
Adjudication Orders under Companies Act, 2013
The Registrars of Companies across the country have been exercising their powers as Adjudicating Authorities to issue Orders adjudging penalties under the Companies Act, 2013.
Our team has compiled and summarised the Adjudication Orders for the period January- March 2023 as available on the MCA portal. While many Orders have been passed against suo moto applications, corporates may note that ROCs are issuing notices for seemingly small violations like lapses in letterhead, not mentioning CIN or website, DIN, not affixing the name board at the registered office.
Click here to read the summary of the ROC Orders.
SEBI Updates
Operational Guidance on amendments to SEBI Buy-Back Regulations
Vide Notification dated February 07, 2023 SEBI had notified the SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023 (“Amendment Regulation”). SEBI has released operational guidance on the Amendment Regulations vide Circular dated March 08, 2023.
The operational guidance includes guidelines on:
Applicability of the Amendment Regulations — effective for all board decisions made on or after March 9, 2023.
Buyback through Stock Exchange Route - Restrictions on placement of bids, price and volume
Margin Requirement for deposits in Escrow Account
General guidance
Book closure and record date reporting on NEAPS
NSE vide Circular dated March 21,2023 has clarified that listed entities required to report the Book Closure and Record Date for all corporate actions like declaration of dividend, bonus issue etc. to NSE pursuant to Regulation 10 of LODR, should report the same separately on the NEAPS portal under the Corporate Actions tab and not the Outcomes of Board / Shareholders Meeting tab.
Additional disclosures in Annual Secretarial Compliance Report (ASCR) by PCS
NSE vide Circular dated March 16, 2023 has notified some additional disclosures and affirmations to be provided by the Practicing Company Secretaries (PCS) in their Annual Secretarial Compliance Report (ASCR). Additional columns have been added in the ASCR as well.
Highlights are given below:
Compliance with Secretarial and Auditing Standards issued by ICSI.
BOD approval for adoption of the Policies under SEBI Regulations.
Maintenance and disclosures on Website.
Directors are not disqualified.
Identification of material subsidiary Companies.
Preservation and disposal of records as per LODR.
Confirmation that Board Evaluation has been conducted at the start of every FY.
Prior approval of Audit Committee for all RPTs.
Compliance with prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations.
The above mentioned requirements shall be applicable from FY ended 31 March 2023.
IBBI Update
Revised format for filing application of CIRP online
Pursuant to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016 an applicant initiating Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against a Corporate Debtor is required to submit a copy of the application to IBBI before filing it with the Adjudicating Authority.
Considering the difficulties in physical submission of the application, IBBI had added a link on their website allowing the application to be submitted online. These applications were then forwarded to the Information Utilities (IU).
To ensure filing of authentic information with the Board and further enable Board to share information relating to the application for initiation of CIRP with the IU efficiently, a revised format has been introduced vide the Circular dated March 04, 2023.
IT Updates
CBDT notifies ITR forms for AY 2023-24
CBDT has notified ITR forms for AY 2023-24 (Excluding ITR-7) vide Notification No. 04/2023 dated: February 10, 2023 and notified ITR-7 vide Notification No. 05/2023-Income Tax Dated: February 14, 2023. CBDT amended notified ITR first vide Notification No. 8/2023-Income Tax dated February 28, 2023 and now its amended the same for the second time vide corrigendum Notification.
Mobile app, namely, "AIS for Taxpayer"
The Income Tax Department has launched a Mobile app, namely, ‘AIS for Taxpayer’ to facilitate taxpayers to view their information as available in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) / Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS). ‘AIS for Taxpayer’ is a mobile application provided free of cost by the Income Tax Department and is available on Google Play & App Store. The app is aimed to provide a comprehensive view of the AIS/TIS to the taxpayer which displays the information collected from various sources pertaining to the taxpayer.
GST Updates
No restriction for GST Registration for professionals on residential address
The Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary has clarified in the Rajya Sabha on March 14, 2023, that there is no restriction on Professionals for obtaining GST Registration if they are operating from residential premises.
GST dept to scrutinise I-T, MCA data to identify entities not paying taxes
The GST department will soon begin analysing ITRs filed by businesses and professionals and also MCA filings to ascertain if the entities are adequately discharging their GST liability, to widen the taxpayer base.
Currently, there are 1.38 crore registered businesses and professionals under the GST, which was launched on July 1, 2017. Businesses in manufacturing and services sectors with annual turnover of more than Rs 40 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, respectively are required to register themselves under the GST and file tax returns. "We will be doing data triangulation based on the information available with the I-T department. If as per the analysis, the entities which should be paying taxes under GST are not doing so, then initially we will be sending a gentle inquiry," an official told PTI.
Advisory for the taxpayer wishing to register as "One Person Company" in GST
As per the provision of section 2(62) of the Companies Act, 2013 “One Person Company” (OPC) is defined as a company which has only one person as member. Some issues have been raised by the persons registering as OPC while they take GST registration. Upon analysis, it has been noticed that the option of choosing One Person Company is not there in form notified by CGST/SGST Acts and hence not available on the GSTN portal also. As a work around, it is advised that in the ‘Part B’ of GST Registration Form ‘REG-01’, applicant may select option “Others” and mention “One Person Company” in the text field and follow the steps for a normal registration application to complete the process.
SOP for cancellation of GST registration & repository of non-genuine taxpayers
Non-genuine taxpayer is the one who issues invoice under GST Act without actual supply of goods or services to pass on inadmissible tax credit of ITC to the claimant. GST Authorities have detected large number of taxpayers involved in use of fake invoices and wrongful availment/utilization of ITC. In view of these circumstances, it is necessary to have a standard operating procedure for-
Investigation/ inspection/ verification for identification of non-genuine/existing taxpayers.
Creation of a " Repository " of non-genuine taxpayers which will contain list of non-genuine/existing taxpayers along with necessary supportive and corroborative evidence.
Use of information and " evidences " of non-genuine/existing taxpayers in the process of adjudication/ audit / assessment or other legal actions of cases of recipients of ITC claim on the basis of fake invoices.
"Exchange" of information of non-genuine taxpayers and evidence thereof with other authorities such as other State Governments and Central authorities.
Maharashtra Amnesty Scheme
Honourable Deputy CM(Finance) Shri Devendra Fadnavis has announced GST Amnesty scheme under the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee Act, 2023’ during the Maharashtra State Budget 2023 speech on March 9, 2023. This Scheme is applicable on various taxes levied by GST Department before introduction of GST Act and duration of this Amnesty Scheme will be from May 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023. Complete waiver of the arrears in cases where arrears are Rs. 2,00,000/- or less per year. As a result, small dealers will be benefited in around one lakh cases. Dealers having arrears up to Rs. 50 lakhs or less per statutory order will pay only 20% amount and balance 80% will be waived. As a result, medium dealers will be benefited in around eighty thousand cases.
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