‘Chief finance officers must prepare their organisations for GST changes’

Dated 15th December, 2016

Chief finance officers (CFOs) need to play a predictive role in preparing their organisation for regulatory changes, speakers at a CII conclave here said.

Addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) annual CFO Conclave on the topic ‘India Competitiveness: Growth Opportunities and Challenges’, S Kannan, CFO, Aravind Brands, said: “GST, though a huge opportunity for companies, can be a minefield as well if an organisation is not equipped to implement it”.

The passage GST is expected to create a level playing field for the textile sector. “It will remove the current disparity of excise duty between cotton and man-made fibre. This will also spur growth and the country is expected to again surpass Bangladesh and Vietnam in garment exports in the next three years,” explained Kannan.

The textile sector is one of the largest contributors to India’s exports, accounting for approximately 11 per cent of the total outbound shipments.

India’s overall textile exports during 2015-2016 stood at $40 billion and the industry size is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021.

Paperless taxation

Murali Ganesh, CFO, ITC Foods, in his presentation said the GST, which is by far one of the far reaching indirect tax reforms, will transform the way India does business. “GST will lead to a paperless taxation process that will reduce errors and bring in transparency, widening the scope of the tax base.”

The Conclave brought together top CFOs from across industry verticals. The day-long conclave also deliberated on disruptive technologies and evolving role of CFOs, the GST opportunities, impact of demonetisation, managing growth with increasing cybre threat and winning in the digital world.

Global nature

Earlier in the day, delivering the keynote address, Krishnakumar Natarajan, Executive Chairman, Mindtree, said the Indian economy can no longer be dependent on just domestic consumption.

According to Natarajan, India now needs to concentrate on industries which are global in nature. Domestically, he identified three key industries that will drive the Indian economy namely the ‘Auto and Auto Ancillary sector’, ‘Banking & Financial Services’ and ‘Infrastructure Segment’.

(This article is published in The Hindu on December 15, 2016)