Religious symbols and ICAI

Dear Mr. Chairman,

 

I have perused the Newsletter of March, 2013 of the Hyderabad Branch which you have sent to us vide trailing mail and request you to not to post the same to the Members for the following reasons:

 

1)  Publishing of Lord Shiva's Photo on the cover page:  India is a secular country and the ICAI is a Body enacted under an Act of Parliament and Hyderabad Branch of ICAI being a Branch of ICAI cannot publish the photographs of God or such other photos which indicate importance to any particular religion in its Newsletter / other publications.  

 

2)  Objectionable remarks in the Chairmen's Page:  In your Message to the Members you have written the following under various headings 

 

Depleted bank audit assignments

 

"This year the threshold for branch audits of banks has been increased from advances of Rs 6 cr. to Rs 20 cr. and

if the news is right it is expected to be Rs. 50 cr. or Rs 100 cr. in immediate future. This indicates that members

will no longer have the bank audits like before and this is going to affect many of us. Not that we are dependent

wholly on these audits but these audits provided the yearly bonus for many."

 

Your statement that the members will no longer have the bank audits like before and this is going to affect many of us is not giving the correct picture of the bank audit and in fact this kind of statements should be avoided in the Chairmen's Message.

 

Increase in the slab for tax audits:

 

"It is expected that the turnover limit for tax audit may be raised to Rs.1 Cr

which again will be reducing opportunities for Chartered Accountants."

 

Your expectation that the turnover limit for the Tax Audit may be raised to Rs.1.00 Cr. is completely imaginary and has no basis.   This kind of expectation and imaginations should not have been written in the Chairman's Message. 

 

                                           Thanking the office bearers:

 

                                          "I also thank office bearers Vice Chairman CA Tirupathaiah Yarra,

Secretary CA Murali Krishna Nagabhirava , treasurer CA China Mastan

Talakayala and IPC CA Adusumilli Venkateswara Rao for their silent

cooperation in organizing more Number of CPE programs. I also thank

them for their unstinted support for some of the employees of branch

and creating a challenging environment for me in discharge of my duties

as Chairman."

 

The above office bearers have objected for your remark of their unstined support for some of the employees of the Branch and creating a challenging environment to you in discharge of your duties as Chairman.  These office bearers have stated that they have not extended any unstinted support to any specific employee which has created a challenging environment to you in discharing your duties.  Further, three of the office bearers have said that since they are contesting in the ensuing elections for the Managing Committee of the Branch, this kind of subtle adverse remarks against them in the Chairman's Message would impact their success in the Election. 

 

Therefore, I suggest that this paragraph suitably modified to remove their apprehensions. 

 

3) Seminar on Bank Audit: Under this programme my name is shown as one of the Programme Director.  In this connection, I wish to bring to your notice that you have not taken my consent before (or after) naming me as the Director.  Further, you have not only consulted me on the programme / speakers etc but also not even informed me before hand about the programme.  

 

 I suggest that in future you should take the necessary consent from the person concerned before naming him as a Director / Coordinator etc of a particular programme. 

 

4)  Publishing of details of the contestants for the Managing Committee of Hyderabad:     I have seen the brief details of the candidates along with their photographs who are contesting in the Elections for the Managing Committee of Hyderabad Branch printed in the Newsletter from Page 3 onwards without any Title / reference / heading.  

 

In the absence of any details about the candidates whose details are given in the Newsletter, the Members at large will not understand the purpose of printing this information in the Newsletter.  Also, you may note that in the past the branch has never published the names of the contestants with their brief details and photograph in the newsletter. 

 

Therefore, this is a clear violation of established practices and good governance.  Therefore, this information cannot be printed in the Newsletter.

 

For the above reasons, I suggest you to stop posting the Newsletter of March, 2013 to the Membership.   

 

I am marking a copy of this mail together with the Softcopy of the Newsletter (which you have sent to us ) to the Hon'ble President, ICAI, Vice-President, ICAI and the Secretary of ICAI for their information and immediate appropriate directions to you on the matter. 

 

With regards,

 

J. Venkateswarlu