Goyal underlines importance of Cost Accounting

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Railways, Coal, Finance and Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal on June 29, 2018, said that India’s growing clout in the international economies and geopolitics is clearly visible from the fact that India hosted Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank summit this week in Mumbai and now we are hosting South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA )International Conference.

Addressing the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) International Conference 2018 organised by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI), Goyal said that in the brave new world, Asian countries need to work as a team to tackle the challenges of tomorrow. The world is becoming smaller in terms of cost accounting. Cost accounting is totally global in nature.

Underlining the importance of Cost Accounting, Goyal said it can significantly improve foundations of companies and also governance as competition requires cost cutting without compromising on quality. It requires planning and delivering the goods with consistency. Any organisation that does not have a cost analysis can’t succeed in today’s challenging world. This is made even more challenging by the cost scenarios changing daily. Consistency is the key to growth. And consistency can only be achieved by factoring in cost. Besides, costing ensures fair competition, Goyal added, according to a PIB release.

Referring to the challenges of implementing GST in a nation size and scale of India, Goyal said that the Government could have not done all of this without understanding costing. Costing is an important part of all reforms.

Earlier in the morning, Union Minister of State for Law & Justice and Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary inaugurated the conference. He said synchronising accounting standards and practices are in public interest as it makes us propels us towards broad development. He said that since all our SAFA countries are developing economies, we must try to increase our GDP and provide relief to the millions of poor. This is only possible when businesses have competent and robust accountants as businesses can flourish fast only when the foundation is strong.

The scope of accountants has not remained limited to just that of an accountant, auditor or a taxation expert rather it has widened into other critical areas such as corporate finance, investment banking, fund management, credit analysis, capital markets, arbitration, risk management, valuation of businesses and insolvency, Chaudhary said.

The theme of the Conference ‘Professionals of the Future: Thoughts on 2018 & Beyond’ emphasized the areas of professional challenges and the opportunities that come along as avenues for future growth. Digitalisation has challenged professional service sector to rethink internal structures and thereby better deliver services and maximize profits in an increasingly digitalized age. But at the same time, it also will require considering how automation will impact jobs. To complicate this even further, overall the workforce composition is changing.

South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) was formed in 1984 to serve the accountancy profession in the South Asian Region and uphold its eminence in the world of accountancy. SAFA is an Apex Body of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) and an Acknowledged Accounting Grouping of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) is a statutory body set up under an Act of Parliament in 1959. The Institute regulates the profession of Cost and Management Accountancy, enrolls students for its courses, provides coaching facilities to the students, organises professional development programmes for the members, and undertakes research programmes in the field of Cost and Management Accountancy.