by Father Chris Valentino
MUMBAI, JULY 17, 2017: One hundred and five, administrative and accountants from Salesian institutions participated in a seminar-cum-workshop at the Don Bosco 
Provincial House, Matunga from July 13 to 15 to iron out queries related to the recently implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) and to teach stakeholders about the new ACME ERP accounting software, which has been mandated by the Salesian Provincials Conference of South Asia (SPCA) for all the Don Bosco institutions across India.
Father Manuel Murzello, the Mumbai Salesian Economer was the coordinating director, and led the educative-informative-
"It was an extremely practical and worthwhile hands-on-training which is very much needed, since we have to keep moving with technological developments," Vidyadhar, a participant, said. Other administrative-accounting personnel, senior and the new initiates, too voiced similar sentiments. Senior CA Avinash Rawali then made a presentation on GST and answered queries related to the issue.
The final day of the workshop was dedicated to an enlightening expose on the GST and Trust matters. Bosco D'Souza, associate partner of Larry D'Souza & Co Chartered Accountants, dealt with 'Charitable Trust and Institutions' and 'Maintenance of Accounts by Charitable Trust and Societies'. In the largely interactive exchange, D'Souza highlighted with succinct examples the various legal implications associated with compliances and dwelt on the good practices that each accounting personnel had to adopt.
Senior accountant Ravi aptly summed up the seminar, "It was a very educative and eye-opening experience for me. Even with my experience, I am still learning newer things about technological developments and how we need to incorporate accounting into it."
Mukesh Khan, a participant from Alirajpur, added, "It was an enriching workshop. From time to time, such inputs and sessions are necessary for us. We need to adopt and adapt according to changing times. Hopefully, we will be able to implement majority of the learnings back in our institutions."
The workshop ended with an enlightening 'Q and A' session chaired by Bosco D'Souza for the Mumbai Salesian administrators. Father Murzello invited suggestions for improvement and Father Roy Noronha brought proceedings to a close with a brief vote of thanks.