#sethurathnamravibseformerchairman

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“There has been a very strong recovery in terms of collection in the form of GST in the past few years” - Former BSE chairman, Sethurathnam Ravi

Sethurathnam Ravi, popularly known as S Ravi is the former chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE). Currently he is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ravi Rajan & Co., an advisory and accountancy firm, headquartered in New Delhi, India.

When the Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman was all set to present the Union Budget on February 1, for the financial year 2022-23, rebate in taxation, simplifying investment and offering of further incentives to the Indian start-ups and MSMEs were the expectations from the same. After the presentation of the budget, Sethurathnam Ravi, the financial expert shares his views on the present taxation rates, the GST and how it affects the SMEs and the MSMEs.

Sethurathnam Ravi (S Ravi) Founder and Managing Partner, Chartered Accountants’ firm Ravi Rajan & Co. said, "Expectation on rationalization of GST is there so that there is relief to small producers specifically within the food and Pharma sectors. I believe that there will be larger focus on few industries like semiconductors, lithium batteries, infrastructure for renewable energy and Electric Vehicles and special boost to Green Energy therefore we can expect major measures in this direction."

After the presentation of the Union Budget 2022, Sethurathnam Ravi expects that there will be some relief for the SME and MSME space with over 40 percent workforce engaged in the latter. In the last few years, we have seen, despite a strong covid outburst, a very strong recovery in terms of collection in the form of GST. According to Mr. Sethurathnam Ravi it has been a very progressive journey. It was full of challenges of acceptability. But now it has been accepted. The financial expert says that what is more important is how we address to the lower category of people, i.e., the MSME and the SME's who have to bring in more awareness and to make the cost of compliance lesser.

Sethurathnam Ravi also suggests that a platform should be created where data sharing can happen, an open-source data platform between the banks, the SMEs, the MSMEs and the GST collection. With this possible, the bankers can review the collection, the credit record, turnover record, services record etc, in a harmonious way. Mr Ravi concluded by saying that this is very important from the long-term perspective.

[businessnewsupdates]

Sethurathnam Ravi, Former BSE Chairman - “CA’s Role Has Diversified Contributing To Nation Building”

Sethurathnam Ravi, popularly known as S Ravi is the former chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE). On the 74th National CA Day, in an interview with BW Businessworld, Sethurathnam Ravi, currently Managing Partner, Ravi Rajan & Company and Chairman, TFCI reflects on how the role of chartered accountants has evolved over time both in practice and scope, becoming critical to a company’s, a sector’s and the economy’s growth story.

The former BSE chairman explains how he has seen a CA’s role broaden over the years. According to him, “If you look at the earlier years the profession was about statutory audit and internal audit but later it migrated to other fields such as forensic audit, due diligence, merchant banking and also things like insolvency in recent reforms. The profession widened significantly from practice and participation in bigger changes. Today, we see many CFOs, CHROs, CTOs who started as CAs. There are many CAs in the banking sector as well. If you were to compare it with two decades ago, the role has completely changed”. He says that it has become much more diversified, and the ecosystem has changed given the various reforms due to which both the practice and scope are impacted.

Sethurathnam Ravi also shared his observation on the ICAI partnering on nation-building. In his view, the ICAI has played a very vital role. “We got independence in1947 and the institute was formed in 1949. You can see how the system recognized the importance of CAs at the time and they have been part of the nation-building process because CAs audit companies and are part of the growth story but we are also the conscious keepers and watchdogs to a great extent”, he says. He also explains that the CAs help in small-scale industries in imparting knowledge and explaining things such as budgetary, statutory and economic changes where otherwise the domain knowledge is limited. CAs help across this spectrum, contributing toward nation-building.

Sethurathnam Ravi also highlights some points on what more can be done to develop the next generation of accountancy professionals. In his opinion, this is a very important area of focus. “Passing a CA exam itself is tough but the training process should be intensified so they are ready for the changes taking place in the environment. So, more practical orientation is equally important though the institute has taken various steps of imparting practical knowledge even after people qualify the intensity of real-life problems to have to be increased”.

The 21st World Congress of Accountants 2022 will be hosted in India for the first time. According to Sethurathnam Ravi, this is the opportunity to showcase the accounting profession, which is globally well recognised. “It is time to show what Indian accountants can do, their depth and knowledge. Also, it will be in exchange for experience with all the leading countries and their accounting practices”, he concluded.