Letters to the editor dated July 1, 2020

Apropos your editorial on the ICAI celebrating its 71st birthday (June 30), the technological advancements such as artificial intelligence and data mining can only simplify and not replace the role of auditors, whose interpretation and conclusions are still indispensable. It is here that their integrity assumes significance. While they may advise their clients on taking advantage of the changing rules, helping them ‘evade the law by fudging accounts’ is wrong.

The various sensational scams and frauds, starting right from Enron and Satyam to the more recent and near collapse of some banks in India, are a fallout of the massive evergreening of non-performing assets. All this could not have occurred without the negligence, or active connivance, of the auditors who inspected their books. .

As a chartered accountant needs to keep abreast of all the relevant laws that are current, as well as historical, the ICAI needs to make the profession one of continuing education, besides translating its vision of being ‘a regulator and developer of trusted and independent professionals’ into reality.

Chennai

Automation should be viewed as a helping tool and not as a serious threat to the audit profession as machines have inherent limitation, especially when tackling unusual situations. In fact, auditors’ true aim nowadays should be to provide analysed information and act as another set of eyes and ears for the various set of stakeholders. To fulfil the expectations, auditors need to have a futuristic perspective as well an open and inquisitive mind. A backward looking view can no longer be of any help in achieving the goal of improved performance.

Quality audits should be a combination of both compliance and performance evaluation. And by making use of defined and agreed-to measurement criteria, the audit report should categorically tell whether controls (covering financial, operational, compliance, including risk management) exist and are adequate.

What’s needed is to thoroughly prepare for the audit, conduct the evaluation with a high degree of professionalism, and present the report in meaningful terms to the intended audience.

Gurgaon, Haryana

India banning a clutch of popular apps of Chinese proprietorship, is no more than creating ripples with a pebble. It would need a boulder to create a splash and a wave. The Chinese 5G predator Huawei was a threat to top global telecom equipment and electronic component majors of the West. The western nations joined hands in banning the company and Canada even arrested the Huawei CFO. In banning a few Chinese apps, we have neither Indian companies in this sector to protect and promote nor does the message carry political overtones heavy enough to confront belligerence.

Navi Mumbai

The Covid crisis has led to some positive outcomes too — increased use of digital transactions, fillip to indigenous products, Indian apps looking to replace the Chinese ones, scaling up of the production of ventilators and PPEs, etc. Also, due to the disruptions caused by the crisis, the current year can be closed by end-December, to take stock of all the losses and start afresh from calender year 2021. The Union Budget may be presented by January 1, and all companies and banks could start the financial year from January. Also, the academic year can also begin from the calender year.

Chennai

This refers to ‘The GST journey has been transformative’ (July 1). Despite several hurdles and technical glitches, the Centre has been able achieve the core purpose of rolling out GST, namely, ‘One Nation One Tax’. However, issues such as simplifying the return forms and flexible norms for tax payment still need to be addressed.

This will not only help improve ‘the ease of doing business’ but also attract overseas investments.

Sivakasi

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