The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

With a view to update the members about the changes made in the indirect taxes law, the Indirect Taxes Committee has been continuously organising National Conference/Seminar as a nationwide outreach programme for members. During the year 2014-15, the Committee has also decided to bear the cost of two faculties in case of one day national programme and cost of four faculties for two-day national programme with a view to encourage the Branches/Regions to host such programme for the benefit of members in general. The detailed guideline for organising the National Conference/Seminar is as follows:

SI.No.	Heading	details
1	Minimum number of participants	No. of participants in the programme should preferably be not less than: For Branch & Region having 3000 or more members: 500 for one day programme & 600 for two days programme For other Branches: 300 for one day programme & 400 for two days programme
2	Maximum number of National Programme in regions	The grant would be given to five national programmes in each region.
3	Fixation of Speaker	As per CPE guidelines, "not more than 1/3rd of the composition of resource persons / speakers / Chairmen shall be from amongst the Central Council in a programme. This restriction shall not apply in a situation where the Council member is on a visit to a place for a Committee meeting or where the total number of speakers is less than three in a programme." The Central Indirect Taxes Committee may assist in fixing the speaker for the programme. As per the CPE Advisory, a speaker can address at the programme for a maximum of 3 hrs. The hosting region/branch to arrange the speaker for the programme and do all the co-ordination with the speaker.
4	Inaugural/ valedictory session	The inaugural/valedictory session, if any, in the programme shall be restricted to 60 minutes duration.
5	Revenue and expenses	The revenue and expenses of the programme would be managed by hosting region/branch. They are authorised to fix any reasonable fees for the programme based on the estimated expenses for the programme. The surplus/deficit, if any, would belong to the hosting region/branch.
6	Mass E-mail & SMS	Hosting region/branch to send mass e-mail to branch member and nearby branch's member once the date of programme is finalised. Further, SMS may also be sent to the members if Chairman of Branch/Region think so. The Central Committee may send mass SMS to the member if requested by Branch/region but the cost of sending the mass SMS would be deducted from the grant/cost of speakers.
7	Hosting of announcement on the website and publishing the same in the CA Journal/ branch Newsletters	Hosting region/branch may host the announcement at their websites and publish the same in their regional/branch newsletters. The Central Indirect Taxes Committee may host the announcement on the ICAI website. It may also get the same published in the CA Journal, if final announcement is sent by the branch within the time frame suggested by Journal Section like if announcement is to be published in June issue of journal, then it should be ready by 10thof May.
8	Arrangement of Venue & other logistics like taxi for faculties, lunch, tea etc.	The Hosting region/Branch will have to arrange suitable venue for organising the programme. However, possibility of utilizing the available venue of ICAI should be explored before finalising the venue of the conference. Branch to handle all administrative and logistic support for organising the programme.
9	Remuneration/ Memento to speaker	The hosting region /branch to decide whether to pay any honorarium /to give any Memento to the speaker or not.
10	Reports from hosting region/Branch to Central Committee	The hosting region/branch should send a report, in couple of paragraph, containing the following: Feedback of the participants Who inaugurated the programme and his remarks on the programme Some word about valedictory session as well as of opening remarks 2-3 photographs. Other important matter, if any.
11	Uploading of CPE hours	The hosting region/branch will provide the detail of faculty like membership no., session taken by faculty(in hours), attendance sheet of participants and the capacity of venue to the Central Committee to facilitate granting of CPE hours to faculty and participants. Central Committee will upload the CPE hours for the participants and Faculty.