Dear Members,

The man proposes and God disposes. How aptly this summarises the unprecedented havoc created by the Tsunami Waves in South and South-east Asia, turning the hopes and the plans of many tourists and others to enjoy Christmas vacation and to welcome the new year with fun and feisty, into death and destruction on a massive scale. Never in the recent history, fury of Mother Nature and Mother Earth is so strongly demonstrated and felt than this. This is as if, in a way, the Mother Nature is showing her displeasure and anger towards large-scale havoc that human beings themselves have created with respect to the nature and the environment. This is as if, the mankind is made to pay price for its utter shameless and unthoughtful manner of tempering with the environment and the nature and for showing disrespect to Mother Nature. Unfortunately, our country also has not remained immune from this madness. In fact, it is at very bottom of the list of the countries that are conscious about the environment and the nature. Neither there are adequate laws to protect the environment nor there is any will or effective machinery to enforce whatever laws that are existing to protect environment.

In this dark scenario, the only silver line is the very proactive role being played by the courts in this regard. Though the constitution of our country provides for the safeguard of our environment, due to lack of interest of legislature and failure of Government, environment has been neglected, it is due to judicial activism and there persistent follow-up, the environment of country is protected to a certain extent.

I pray to the almighty to give strength and courage to the persons who have lost their near and dear ones.

The Chamber along with BCAS was specially invited to give suggestions to the members of a Expert Group appointed by Government of India to recommend special schemes to unearth black money and assets. Under the guidance of Shri Narayan Varma, we made useful suggestions which were highly appreciated by the team.

Direct Taxes Committee had organized a seminar on "TDS — Legal & Procedural Aspects" jointly with BCAS & WIRC of ICAI on 3rd December, 2004, where Shri G. Anantharaman,. Shri Jayant Gokhale, Shri Swatantra Kumar, Shri Kishore Karia, Shri S. P. Singh and Shri Hitesh Gajaria discussed on the above subject. I express my thanks to each one of them. The seminar was very well attended and widely appreciated by the delegates. Shri Narayan Varma, Chairman of the seminar and Shri Vipin Batavia, Chairman, Direct Taxes Committee deserves our congratulations.

The response to this year’s RRC scheduled at Jaipur is overwhelming, hence we were forced to close the enrolment quite early. We regret that we could not enrol many more members who had shown keen interest.

The Journal committee is the backbone of the CITC. It continues to fulfil the main objects of the Chamber. Recent Income Tax Review covering special stories on Transfer Pricing & Service Tax will be remembered by the readers for a long time to come. This Special Story on TDS and TCS is written by professionals who have spared their valuable time for the benefit of professionals at large. I sincerely acknowledge their service.

I conclude with the couplet, which I remember at this tragic disaster caused by Tsunami.

            To serve others,
                        trees bear fruits.
            To serve others,
                        rivers provide water.
            To serve others,
                        cows yield their milk.
            To serve others,
                        human body is meant.
            This is the primary injunction of nature.

With warm regards,

Ajit N. Rohira
President