BCAS President CA Zubin Billimoria’s Message for the Month of November 2025
Diwali – the festival of lights, is just behind us. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all a Very Happy Diwali . Traditionally, Diwali falls just before the onset of winter and marks the beginning of the new year for many of us. It also symbolises the spirit of spring cleaning, by discarding old or unused items and acquiring new items with the ultimate hope of ushering prosperity. This year, the celebration started early with the ushering in of path breaking changes and reforms in GST popularly known GST 2.0 effective from 22nd September, 2025. The most significant change is in the duty structure with fewer tax slabs resulting in reduction in rates to as low as 5% from the existing 12% or 18% for items like personal care and hygiene products, packaged food and everyday staples and health and medical items reducing prices of day to day items bringing cheer to a vast majority of consumers. Further, the reduction in the rates of consumer appliances and electronic items and vehicles from 28% to 18% will also bring a lot of cheer since these items are generally bought during Diwali as part of the spring cleaning exercise. Accordingly, I feel it is apt to reflect on the concept of celebration and its role for professionals and institutions like us.
The word celebration evokes joy, festivities, milestones and collective victories. It is not merely a festive occasion, but a deeper expression of purpose and professional pride.
Linkage between Professionals and Celebration:
Celebration is intrinsically linked with our professional journey as Chartered Accountants, both individually and collectively.
Individual Celebration:
It manifests itself in different forms and stages in one’s professional journey as under:
Initial Stages- The day we qualify invokes the initial celebration amongst family and friends since the CA exam is one of the toughest professional exams not only in India but also universally, with the passing percentage generally below 20% with wide fluctuations. After the initial euphoria dies down, the professional journey begins in various ways which call for celebration in some form or the other. The first job, the first pay check, the first professional assignment, the first signing of a financial statement, the first litigation victory for clients are all events which trigger feelings of joy and celebration.
Onward Professional Journey – During the course of our professional journey, whilst we strive for excellence by focussing on performance, targets, regulations and other responsibilities, we also need to appreciate certain softer aspects. In this context, celebration enables us to set the right tone by allowing us to pause and reflect on individual efforts, sacrifices made and progress achieved.
Celebration during the course of our professional journey is not always about grand occasions. It is also about recognizing the small, consistent steps that make big impacts which also warrant a celebration, examples of which include:
- A successful audit closed with due professional care and integrity;
- A successful mentoring session;
- A new Accounting Standard applied with due professional care;
- A new legislation complied with not only in letter but also in spirit;
- A value-added advisory opinion provided to a client;
- A pro bono effort that helped a not-for-profit organisation.
Collective Celebration:
The Chartered Accountancy profession in India has evolved significantly over the past seven decades by widening its ambit from traditional accounting and audit to being partners in strategic decision-making, from handling compliance to enabling governance, from financial reporting to sustainability and integrated assurance. It is imperative that we celebrate this evolution not with complacency, but with gratitude and pride. We must acknowledge the tireless hours of study, the rigor of training, and the ethical framework that binds us. Accordingly, we need to collectively celebrate the resilience of our members who adapt to changing laws, embrace technology and uphold the dignity of our profession even in challenging circumstances.
Celebrating BCAS as an Institution:
The formation and evolution of BCAS seven decades ago reflects celebration through the community spirit represented through its members; diverse in experience – young and old, practitioners and industry professionals, researchers and teachers; but united by a shared identity. Our events, whether technical or social, are an opportunity to celebrate relationships. The friendships forged at study circles, the mentorship conducted and the collaborations forged at RRCs all have celebration of knowledge and relationships as the underlying theme. These celebrations and connections assume added importance in a world which is increasingly digitized and isolated through virtual events. At BCAS, whilst our forte is knowledge dissemination via different formats we do not loose sight of networking and leisure opportunities during the course of our long duration flagship events like RRCs by organizing entertainment programmes and social outings which promote camaraderie and celebration. Also, recent initiatives like felicitation of fresh CAs, organising the CAthon, arranging movie screenings and other similar events foster a spirit of celebration.
Whilst it is important that we celebrate our past, celebration is not just about looking back but a moment to reflect, renew and reimagine what lies and needs to be done ahead. It is our constant endeavour to introspect and recommit ourselves to the ideals we hold dear — independence, objectivity, and service to society. It is also a moment to reflect on the following as we prepare to celebrate our existence and relevance towards our centenary :
- How can we elevate our impact?
- How can we empower the next generation of professionals?
- How can we make ourselves more inclusive, our practices more sustainable and our voices more relevant?
Life is a Celebration:
I would like to conclude with a quote by the author Amit Kalantri in his book “Wealth of Words”, whereby he reminds us that our life on this planet is a reminder to celebrate as well as keep on updating and upgrading ourselves, which is equally true of institutions like the BCAS, where change is the only constant!
“A birth date is a reminder to celebrate the life as well as to update the life”
A big thank you to one and all!
