February 10, 2021 Atul Kumar Gupta, outgoing President of ICAI× The CA Institute has knocked the doors of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance Minister seeking a withdrawal of the Budget proposal to do away with mandatory annual audit and reconciliation statement certification by a chartered accountant in respect of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The Budget has — in an apparent business-friendly move — proposes to amend the Central GST law to allow filing of annual returns on a self-certification basis. It has also empowered the commissioner to exempt a class of taxpayers from filing of annual returns. This Budget proposal has left the chartered accountants fraternity in a state of shock, prompting the CA Institute to demand a rollback of the move.