EEMA Concludes First ‘Know GST’ Seminar in Mumbai

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | June 28, 2017 | News

EEMA GST

EEMA organised the first KNOW GST seminar at the CLUB in Mumbai, on June 24. The seminar was organised to acquaint industry professionals with the various facets of the new Goods & Services Tax as it applies to the event industry. EEMA welcomes GST as a positive move of tax reform that gives equal footing to all companies; EEMA also announced several initiatives and steps it is taking by making representations to define and ease specific needs of the industry.

The event began with Vinod Janardhan, Secretary Maharashtra for EEMA welcoming all delegates and setting the tone for the event. EEMA President Sabbas Joseph then launched the event, welcoming the young gathering of company founders, finance executives and delegates from as far as Goa, Pune and Delhi at the first KNOW GST PROGRAM. He lauded the quick initiative of EEMA West zone headed by Sushma Gaikwad, VP West to quickly implement the initiative.

He remarked, “Disruptions affect our business, and we’ve identified the implementation of GST in our country as one of the biggest disruptions that we need to be ready for. Taking this forward, EEMA  is launching the KNOW GST PROGRAM across the country for the Events and Experiential industry, so that we educate ourselves, our CFOs, finance teams, and also the vendor-partner community across providers of technical infrastructure, event infrastructure, talent, hotels, venues, etc. The program has knowledge partners like EY, Deloitte and ASCAA supporting our efforts.”

EEMA has also proposed to create an EEMA CFOs Council so that the industry is constantly interacting at the highest levels of organisation, and best practices are mirrored where such government representations are knowledge-based and effective.

Vinod Janardhan, Secretary Maharashtra, EEMA added, “GST is a transformational business process reform. It is 11 years in the making. It is unfair of people to talk of GST readyness now especially since we are already delayed and this is a hue and cry after the authorities gave us a long drawn heads up towards its launch. It is agreed and understandable that there will be certain teetering, alignments and adjustments needed by organisations; but change is an inevitable truth of rediscovering one’s business. The GST does bring the small and medium units under a tight regulatory regime which would be IT-driven. Hence the sooner we accept the truth, the better for us. GST may open new option of small & medium business acquisitions. Margins will improve by 1st quarter in FY 2018 – 19. It’s time for everyone in the event industry or even remotely connected with events, be it a startup or a upscaled business, owner, founder, manager or an intern, partner supplier; we all need to join and be part of EEMA to work this effort together actively.”

The seminar provided an explanation of the new GST law, the Duties and taxes to be replaced by GST and key tax rates; aspects of GST; input tax credit (ITC) and ISD; key impact areas; transitory issues and the way forward; and sector-wise impact of GST on advertisement budget.

Click here to view the presentation by EY at the event.