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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.)

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Writer: Romita Datta
Romita Datta
Aug 27, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Mamata is seeing a ghost of Bangladesh behind the massive outrage and waves of protest over rape and murder of the trainee doctor. And the reasons are many.

It’s been over a fortnight. Yet with each passing day the voice of protest is getting louder and stronger. From the streets of Kolkata it’s pouring into roads of hinterland. The cry for justice for a rape victim has consolidated into a wail of demands to set a lot of wrongdoings right. Here in lies the fear and trepidation. Wasn’t the issue that brought the youth of Bangladesh out on the thoroughfares a simple, innocent one of quota reform?

The chief minister of Bengal, known for understanding the pulse of people better than many, was quick to read the signages floating in the political horizon.

The most obvious reason for her to be tensed is that both the regime change in Bangladesh and the mass protest in Bengal, were student-driven to begin with. The two incidents---end of 15 year old Sheikh Hasina government and turbulence in West Bengal, over the heinous crime, falling back to back, the first on August 5th and the latter from August 9th onwards, give natural scope for comparisons. More so, because in both the cases the movement strayed beyond an affected constituency to include aggrieved people at large, cutting across socio-economic demography. If the quota reform protest started by students in Bangladesh became a mass uprising against an autocratic regime, the campaign demanding justice for the rape victim and overall safety and security of women in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal soon snowballed into a movement of no-confidence against the government. Slogans--”Mamata must resign” also got floated in social media much in line with the call for ouster of Sheikh Hasina. In fact “Resignation of Hasina” became the single point agenda into which all other fringe demands coalesced.

Incidentally, even before people started drawing parallels, that there could be a thread of commonality in the way the upheaval in Bangladesh and Bengal played out, Mamata was quick to point out that the Opposition were trying to pull off a Bangladesh by politicizing the tragic incident: “A coordinated approach has been executed by the BJP and the CPIM with support from the Centre to defame Bengal and exploit the situation....They want to make a Bangladesh here. They are taking cues from student unrest in Bangladesh and are attempting to capture similarly. I have no longing for the chair. I came here to serve people.”

Not only Mamata, her political lieutenants are consistently equating the turmoil in Bengal with the mayhem in Bangladesh. Cabinet minister for North Bengal development Udayan Guha threatened to take stern action against those, who would be trying to exploit the situation by emulating a Bangladesh like movement. “ Even after the hospital was vandalised, the police did not open fire on anyone. The police will not allow a Bangladesh type situation. We will not allow Bengal to turn into Bangladesh, Guha thundered.

Is the government’s fear unfounded?

Apart from the similarities on ground zero, as to how and where the future course of events are heading to, there are ample reasons for Bengal to mull on-- as to what led to a Bangladesh like boiling point. To begin with, it’ll be appropriate to talk of Bangladesh and the prevailing situation, that made the students’ protest become big in magnitude. The students were out on the streets because of a high reservation in public jobs. Unemployment and stagnant job market in private sector coupled with a high rate of inflation drove the educated youth to rebel against the government.

But soon the students found enormous number of sympathisers, who were equally at the receiving end. According to Bangladesh citizens, the last two terms of the Sheikh Hasina government were a mockery of democracy. Even elections would be compromised. As Hasina grew from strength to strength, she politicized institutions. The rank and file of police owed allegiance to the ruling dispensation. Extortion, harrassment and raids by police and people in power became rampant. An atmosphere of fear and repression reigned and people got restless to overthrow the government.

Politicization of institutions has been happening in Mamata government too. Allegations are quite strong that police in Bengal functions at the beck and call of political bosses. The lapses and alleged loopholes on the part of police in handling the rape and murder of the young doctor have yet again revealed a sense of confused or misplaced loyalty.

But above everything else both Hasina and Mamata governments allegedly seem to have twined in accepting corruption as a way of life. In Bangladesh jobs of primary and secondary teachers got sold at premium, Rs 10-12 lakh in the Hasina regime. Even police had to pay up for prized postings and transfers. In Bengal busting of the teacher’s recruitment scam has revealed how unsuccessful and ineligible candidates got government jobs in schools in exchange of bribes.

Similarities are multiple and inescapable. Mamata has good reasons to be apprehensive. It’s not only she, who can see and connect the dots. People, out on the streets, clamoring for justice, can see a providential pattern somewhere in the unfolding of future events in these two places-- Bangladesh and Bengal. True, they share more than 2,217 odd km of border. They share the same umbilical cord, other than language, culture, ethos, icons. Even emotions are the same. So she cannot take any risk.

(The writer is a senior jounalist based in Kolkata. Views personal)

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