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By:

Sayli Gadakh

11 November 2025 at 8:23:14 pm

The Small Business Compliance Challenge

Technology can handle repetitive work, while professionals can provide judgement and guidance. Bharath owns a small trading business. Over the last few years, his business has grown, and he now has regular customers, employees and several suppliers. He spends most of his day taking orders, speaking to customers, managing payments and solving daily business problems that come up as part of running the business. One month, while preparing for his GST return, Bharath realised that some purchase...

The Small Business Compliance Challenge

Technology can handle repetitive work, while professionals can provide judgement and guidance. Bharath owns a small trading business. Over the last few years, his business has grown, and he now has regular customers, employees and several suppliers. He spends most of his day taking orders, speaking to customers, managing payments and solving daily business problems that come up as part of running the business. One month, while preparing for his GST return, Bharath realised that some purchase invoices were missing, a few bank transactions had not been recorded and some expenses were still written in a notebook. His accountant needed the information urgently to complete the necessary work on time. Bharath was not trying to avoid compliance. He simply did not have enough time to manage everything alongside his other business responsibilities. This is the reality for many small business owners. For a small business, compliance can sometimes feel like another full-time job. GST returns, TDS, income-tax requirements, invoices, accounting records, payroll and other regulatory requirements need to be completed within specific timelines. Large companies usually have dedicated finance and compliance teams, but small businesses often depend on the owner, one accountant or an external professional to manage these responsibilities. The Compliance Challenge The first reason is lack of time. A business owner is usually busy with sales, customers, employees, suppliers and cash flow. Compliance often becomes a priority only when the deadline is close and the required information has to be gathered quickly. The second reason is changing rules. Tax and regulatory requirements can change from time to time. A small business owner may find it difficult to keep track of every change while managing the business and its day-to-day operations. Another common problem is poor record keeping. Invoices may be received on WhatsApp, bills may be kept in files, expenses may be recorded in Excel and bank transactions may be checked separately. When information is spread across different places, mistakes become easier, and finding missing information can take additional time. Cost is also a concern. Not every small business can afford a full-time finance team. Therefore, the business may depend on a small accounting team or an external Chartered Accountant for its accounting and compliance needs. Role of Technology ]Technology can make compliance much simpler and more organised. Cloud-based accounting software can help businesses record transactions regularly. Digital invoicing can reduce manual work and make it easier to maintain sales records. Bank integration can help match transactions with accounting records and identify missing entries. Simple digital reminders can also alert business owners about important GST, TDS and tax deadlines. Documents such as invoices, receipts and bills can be stored digitally instead of searching through physical files when information is needed. Artificial intelligence can provide additional support. AI-based tools can help organise transactions, identify unusual entries and highlight missing information. However, AI should be treated as a support system and not as a replacement for professional advice or professional judgement. This is where a Chartered Accountant continues to play an important role. A CA can review the information, identify possible risks, explain the applicable rules and ensure that technology is being used correctly as part of the overall compliance process. Making Compliance a Strength Compliance should not be viewed only as a burden or a legal formality. Proper records can help a business understand its actual sales, expenses, profits and cash flow and give the owner a clearer picture of the business. For Bharath, the solution is not simply to work harder. It is to create a better system for managing these responsibilities regularly. Technology can handle repetitive work, while professionals can provide judgement and guidance. For small businesses, the message is simple: start maintaining records regularly, use technology wherever possible and take professional advice when required to keep the process organised and manageable. Good compliance does not only prevent penalties. It can also give business owners better financial control and more confidence to grow their businesses over time. In today's digital economy, compliance should not be something a business owner fears every month. It should become a simple, organised part of running the business. (The writer is a Chartered Accountant based in Thane. Views personal.)

Choking Mumbai

Correspondent
Apr 22, 2025
2 min read

For decades, Mumbai was perceived as a rare urban oasis, where the saline sweep of the Arabian Sea blunted the worst ravages of India's air pollution. That illusion has now been dispelled. A meticulous four-year study by Respirer Living Sciences (RLS), using data from its AtlasAQ platform, reveals the bleak truth that the city’s air is thick with pollutants all year round, with no ‘clean season’ left.


Mumbai’s annual average levels of PM10 (particulate matter ten microns or less in diameter) have consistently breached the national safety threshold of 60 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³). This is not merely a seasonal malaise tied to cooler winter months, as once assumed. Alarmingly, the city’s pollution levels persist even through the hot season, a time when improved atmospheric dispersion should offer natural reprieve.


Across the city - from Chakala in Andheri East to Deonar, Kurla, Vile Parle West and Mazgaon - pollution has become an unrelenting, ubiquitous presence.


The culprits are well known: traffic emissions from a burgeoning number of vehicles; unregulated dust from frenzied construction; industrial activity in and around the ports; and a conspicuous lack of dust control measures. Mumbai’s ceaseless growth now risks becoming a chronic liability.


Worryingly, the regulatory response remains sluggish. Mumbai’s urban planning continues to treat clean air as a peripheral concern, not a foundational necessity. Development plans rarely integrate environmental impact assessments in a meaningful way.


A sharper, citywide strategy is urgently needed. Dust suppression rules at construction sites must be enforced strictly, with financial penalties for violators and incentives for best practices. Traffic management systems should be overhauled to ease congestion and encourage the use of public transport. Expansion of clean, reliable mass transit network needs to be urgently prioritised. In addition, comprehensive real-time air monitoring at the ward level should be deployed, enabling authorities to respond to localised pollution spikes swiftly rather than relying on citywide averages that conceal dangerous hotspots.


Longer-term, clean air targets must be hardwired into the city’s master planning and transport policies. Green buffers along major traffic corridors, stricter emission norms for commercial vehicles and incentives for rooftop gardens and urban afforestation could all play a part. Industrial zones near port areas should be subjected to rigorous air quality compliance measures, not token self-certifications. Private developers and large infrastructure firms, often among the worst offenders, must be made stakeholders in the clean air mission through binding regulations.


Mumbai’s commercial dynamism - as a magnet for migrants, entrepreneurs and investors - depends not just on glittering skyscrapers but on something far more basic: the ability to breathe. Unless clean air becomes an unshakeable priority, the city risks suffocating its own future. For a metropolis that prides itself on its resilience against terror attacks, monsoon floods and economic shocks, the real test will be whether it can muster the will to fight an invisible, pervasive enemy slowly corroding the lives of its 20 million citizens.

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