GST set to benefit all: Venkaiah

Hyderabad: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu here on Saturday said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would bring lot of benefits in the long run, notwithstanding the problems during the initial stages.

Inaugurating the Institute of Company Secretaries of India’s (ICSI) Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Uppal here, Venkaiah Naidu said Company Secretaries should be equipped to deal with the challenges arising from its implementation and asked them to set high professional standards.

In the wake of globalisation and the increasing role of corporates in driving the economies, it has become imperative for professionals like Company Secretaries to acquire knowledge and skills to facilitate and promote good corporate governance. Such centres should accord priority to research and innovative practices. A strong foundation in ethical values should be the basis for exemplary corporate governance, he said.

India can emerge as a role model for other countries in corporate governance. Money laundering through shell companies was one of the menaces that affect the economy of a country, he said, lauding the decision of ICSI to sensitise its members and stakeholders on the deleterious impact of shell companies and shell NGOs.

ICSI is in the process of framing an international corporate governance code. It has already submitted a draft note on model code for meetings of Panchayats, which aims to promote good governance at the grass-roots.

Shyam Agarwal, president of ICSI, said it would build interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to the address various challenges

The Hyderabad CoE will cater to South India and similar CoEs coming up at Ajmer for Northern region and at Kolkata for the Eastern region. Its Centre for Corporate Governance, Research and Training is already functioning at Mumbai and serving the Western region.

The CoE’s mandate, among others, is to undertake research that aims to achieve international standing in corporate governance, build collaborative networks to address challenging research problems and achieve global competitiveness and gain recognition for Indian research.