Technical
Session – I : VAT and New Perspectives in Tax Policy
Indirect
tax reforms have been an integral part of the liberalization process
since 1991. in the first phase, India has been steadily attempting to
move towards a tax structure that is simple, moderate, rational and
easy to administer and comply with. In India taxation especially commodity
taxation acts as a major impediment to the free flow of goods and services
and follow no rational pattern and has been evolved over the years through
ad-hoc changes to meet exigencies and in the proves violates basic canons
of taxation such as certainty neutrality and equity.
It
is heartening that of late, the Central and State authorities have stated
realizing the various problems relating to different taxes and of the
distortions and cascading of such taxes and finding ways and means to
overhaul the indirect taxation system. By now, it is recognized that
there is a need to improve the competitiveness in such a domestic industry
and that it is desirable to tax domestic consumption in such a manner
as not to interfere needlessly with market forces and is neutral both
externally and internally, it is equally well recognized that tinkering
with the existing indirect tax system by the Central or State Governments
alone to make it modern would not help and a complete restructuring
is called for. In this regard steps initiated by the Government to move
towards VAT are indeed welcome.
From
1st of April 2005, a system of State-Level Value Added Tax (VAT) has
been introduced in majority of the Sates of the Indian Union. The introduction
of VAT can be heralded as a major tax reform in the history of fiscal
legislature of the county. With the introduction of State-Level VAT,
it is expected and hoped that in near future multiple indirect taxes
such Excise Duty, Sales Tax, Turnover Tax, Octroi, Entry Tax, Central
Sales Tax, Service Tax and all other indirect taxes levied on goods
& services shall be abolished and substituted by a single and unified
Goods and Services Tax (GST). Such a structure would bring more equity
in the system.
Undoubtedly,
the reform process involves significant transformation from the present
procedure and practices in the tax system. And for this, the perceptions
and attitudes of all the stakeholders, i.e., the consumers, the business
an industry, the tax professionals, people’s representatives,
the tax officers and the Government, have to be taken into account by
initiating a wide ranging discussion on the relevant issues, concerns
and options and transform the system quickly.
The
authors may concentrate on any of the following sub-themes:
-
Reduction of parallel economy (Black Money) by implementation of Values
Added tax.
-
VAT is essentially a federal or central tax whereas in India its effective
implementation would depend a great deal on state Government.
-
Apart from avoiding cascading of taxes the introduction of VAT is
expected to increase revenues as the coverage increases to value addition
at all States of sale in the production and distribution chain.
-
Many developed as well as develping country in the world have witnessed
a sharp spurt in inflation in the immediate aftermath of the introduction
of VAT, will India’s experience be any different?
-
The VAT regime is theoretically meant for unified market in which
VAT levied can always be set off against taxes already paid, irrespective
of State wise location of the manufacturing or trading entities. In
the Indian federal structure these inter-state adjustment could well
prove to be next to impossible.
-
Accounting and Audit aspects in Value Added Tax.
Technical Session – II : Marketing Innovations – A Paradigm
Shift
The
four elements of the changing environment for marketing including viz.,
globalization; changes to the international monetary systems; changes
to trading and investment, and changes in the competitive, social and
environmental consideration that impinge on companies, culture and operations.
Growing spread and application of e-marketing evidence and the changed
global competitive environment in its argument for a Consumer-led approach
to business growth. Logistics, and the Supply Chain Management are equally
affected by the international preoccupations’ motivations, and
behaviors are increasingly affected by social and environmental conditions.
The role of the marketing functions within firms had undergone much
practical and reflective change, from a departmental function in large,
bureaucratic organization designs prevalent in the 1950s and 1960, to
the contemporary conceptualization of marketing as an overarching culture
within new forms of organization which take account of relational approaches
to customers and markets.
Some
of the important changes that have been taken place with regard to “
The New Improved Indian Consumer” includes viz., rise in the income
growth’ afresh look of rural Indian beyond Agriculture; the rise
of the self-employed even in urban India; better connectivity communication
and the literacy leap resultant in driving aspirations; plurality of
income accompanied with ‘I can’ attitude and ‘The
rise woman’ with a focus on education and health apart from pragmatism
in consumption and preference with a focus on education and health apart
from pragmatism in consumption and preference of ‘Real Value’
products and services’ comfort with borrowing, consumption and
technology etc. India’s consumer markets are witnessing a lot
of churn.
New
product categories have cropped up. Consumption patterns are changing.
The consumer is not behaving like earlier. Post liberalization Indian
consumers think differently with a change in values, attitudes and changing
roles of the Indian kinds, youth, man, woman, and indeed the entire
family, companies have no option but to creatively rethink on how to
sense, and satisfy its target consumers.
The
contributors may concentrate on any of the following issues or related
issues of marketing in their presentations.
-
Marketing Innovations for Competitor Differentiation
-
Marketing Innovations Through Product (Services) Innovation
-
Marketing Innovations Through Promotional Innovation
-
Marketing Innovations Through Pricing Innovation
-
Marketing Innovations Through Distribution Innovation
-
Marketing Innovations Through Retailer / Stockiest
-
Marketing Innovations Through Technological Innovations
-
Marketing Innovations Through Marketing Research
Technical
Session – III : Emerging Trends in Services Sector
While
the contribution of agriculture to The GDP has been steadily declining,
the share of manufacture sector has been stagnant and the services sector
has been making rapid strides. Presently the share of the services sector
to the GDP is about 56%. The trends in sectoral composition of GDP have
several implications to the development process of the economy, which
need to be addressed and carefully analyzed.
Interestingly,
the contribution of agriculture to GDP in counties such as China, Korea,
Indonesia, Malayasia, Philippines and Thailand is much lower that that
of India. Further, it is the manufacturing sector that is dominant in
all these economies by contributing about 65% to GDP in China about
45% in Korea, 44% Indonesia and Thailand and about 69% in Singapore.
In contrast in India the contribution of the manufacturing sector is
one of the lowest at about 28% and the services sector is one of the
highest.
The
services sector witnessed a phenomenal growth during the post –
liberalization era. A glance at the growth rated of sub-sectors of the
services sector during 2003-04 reveals that sub-sectors such as trade,
hotels and communications have been witnessing rapid growth at about
11 per cent per annum, while other sectors such as construction, community,
social and personal services showing about six per cent growth. This
clearly indicated lack of symmetry in the development across the sub-sectors
of the services sector raising issues such as public investment in these
sectors, private participation, foreign investment, deregulation, foreign
direct investment, tax and other incentives, etc.
While
in the developed economies, for instance the USA, the contributions
of services sector to the GDP is 80% accounting for 70% of the total
employment, in India Contrastingly the contribution of services sector
to employment is not even one-fifth of the total employment. The reasons
for the discouraging performance of the services sector in terms of
employment generation need an in depth analysis.
India
has become a hub of business process outsourcing for the developed countries
due to the availability of cost effective and skilled human resources.
This in fact thrown up a big opportunity as well as a challenge. We
have to find ways to harness and tone up the vast growing reservoir
of human capital to make it fit for meeting the demands placed on it.
This may warrant a thorough overhaul of the curriculum and the pedagogy
particularly in the Commerce discipline.
Services
sector has also thrown open several opportunities on the export front.
For example, the exports of software products and services, technical
know-how, technology, transfer and the human capital. In this context,
a closer examination of the policy domain of the Government, unexplored
areas and markets, cost effective ways of reaching out to the people
across the Globe etc. is called for.
The
share of the services sector in the total tax revenues at present is
not impressive. However, the Government ha been exploring the possibilities
of increasing the share and also ways and means of widening the tax
net. The sharing to the service tax revenues between the Centre and
the Sates has also become a bone of contention. Thus, a deeper study
of the policy of the Government on services tax, potential for increasing
the revenues and the issues involved therein assume importance.
The
extent of penetration of the services into rural areas, where about
70 per cent of the population of the country still lives, is abysmally
low. One of the important issues related to the services sector is outsourcing
of services by the urban economy from the rural areas. Many services
can be produced at a much cheaper price in rural areas on account of
availability of cost effective human resources. Hence, here is an imperative
need to make an attempt in this direction.
Thus,
the issues and sub-themes to be covered by the contributors of the papers
may be as follow. A caveat here is that the list is only indicative
and not exhaustive.
- Place
of services sector in the economy
- Contribution
of services sector to the GDP
- Services
sector in India via-a-vis other economies
- Changing
composition of services sector
- Employment
in services sector
- Policy
reform pertaining to various sub sectors of services sector
- FDI
in services sector
- WTO
and services sector
- Trade
in services
- Outsourcing
of services
- Extent
of penetration of services in to rural India.
Technical
Session – IV : Impact of Globalization on Indian Entrepreneurship
The
winds of globalization all over the earth have made the transnational
–economies pregnable and open world wide. The environment of open
economic system and the W.T.O. regime have introduced sweeping transformations
almost in all the facets of the business liberal economic systems adopted
by the members of W.T.O. and the free flow of resources transnationally,
the entrepreneurs, have been facing the new challenges, threats and
opportunities in terms of technology, quality, fierce competition, financial,
marketing, organizational set-ups mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures
and managerial formats.
The
continuous gyrations in the different facets of business make the ralted
stewards of entrepreneurial development more thoughtful and concerned.
Therefore, it si necessary for academicians professionals. Planners,
legislators, financial institutions and entrepreneurs to churn out some
concrete aspects on the issue of “Impact of Globalization on Indian
Entrepreneurship” by contribution the articles/papers based on
research, work experience, or otherwise on the following sub themes:
-
The Economic import of entrepreneurs in Liberal Economy of India.
- The
Global expansion strategies for entrepreneurs in the backdrop of W.T.O.
regime.
- The
Senescent entrepreneurs and the strategies for their survival : Indian
and off shore experiences.
- How
to treat the Social entrepreneurship path in the liberal economy of
India?
- Business
scales (small, medium & large) and entrepreneurship.
- The
Development strategies for rural entrepreneurship in India in the
light of globalization and W.T.O. Regime.
- Women
entrepreneurship and liberalization in India.
- Government
policies and legislation in the back drop of global entrepreneurial
environment.
- Financial,
Marketing Human resource Governance, Technology and Managerial aspects
in the present W.T.O. regime.
Seminar:
Commerce Education – Integrating with Emerging
Technology
The
growing phenomenon of globalization, liberalization and privatization
has been immensely influencing the commerce education. The technological
revolution has further provided new dimensions. E-commerce, e-finance,
e-marketing, e-investment, e-banking, paper less trading and governance
has been gaining importance all over the world. At the same time, the
outsourcing business, call centers activities, small business operation,
IT based services; etc. are expanding very fast. Organization are rethinking
and reengineering their operations to tap the growing technological
advancements. These developments deand paradigm shift in teaching and
learning process. The new skills and training are required to cope up
with these changes. The technological advancements must be integrated
into the basic fabric of commerce education. In fact, development of
IT skills provides edge to commerce graduates in dealing with the changing
scenario of trade, commerce an industry. Moreover, it will further help
in creating new employment avenues in the market.
The
close links and synergistic environment have to be crated between industrial
activities and commerce education. The skills, attitudes, training and
values must be imparted to students in such a way that suit the requirements
of the industry. The influx of foreign universities in the country poses
new challenges to the commerce education. The whole educational components
required to be strengthened for facing the competition. The industrial
requirements based curriculum should be developed to enhance employability
of our graduates. The students equipped with the new knowledge and skill
will be able to deal with the changing business environment effectively.
In
view of the above developments, there is a dire need of integrating
technology with the commerce education. The academia, representatives
from trade and industry and professionals must deliberate on these issues,
identify new skill of industrial requirements and suggest strategies
for industry and commerce education linkages. In specific term, we may
deliberate on following issues.
- Challenges
of commerce education in the new millennium
- Sectoral
developments in professional education
- Role
of IT in commerce education
- Strategies
of integrating technology with commerce education
- Developments
of new skills based curriculum in commerce education
- E-Commerce
and commerce education
- Technology
based education and outsourcing of activities
- Developments
in on-line learning in Commerce
- Impact
of global competition on Indian commerce education
- New
ways of imparting training
- Commerce
education in the post WTO arena
These are suggested sub-theses and not exhaustive lists. The authors
may prepare research papers in the relevant areas as well.
