Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Volunteering
Since 2020, the Government has introduced a slew of changes to the auditing of NGOs, bringing in more clauses and validations. Even in 2023, new clauses have been added to Sections 10B and 10BB, introducing a raft of validations and checkpoints.
These changes encompass administrative expenses, where Chartered Accountants (CAs) can no longer afford to volunteer their services for charitable organizations. Their reasoning is simple – the workload has become so immense that it jeopardizes their regular commitments, making pro bono work impractical. Consequently, their fees have skyrocketed, with some CAs now demanding 7 times more than their previous charges for audits due to the new 10BB requirements.
Previously, members of the finance committee enthusiastically volunteered their time for what used to be a relatively straightforward task. However, with the increased complexity, inadequate compensation, and dwindling enthusiasm, these volunteers are now scarce, causing a significant drop in available expertise. This loss is felt by the finance committee, which is grappling with a severe shortage of volunteers.
To make matters worse, the Government has failed to provide the necessary technological infrastructure to support these sweeping changes and increased validations in the auditing process. Since 2021, the new Income Tax website has been plagued with glitches, making the situation even more challenging. What’s more, new clauses are introduced without adequate foresight, leading to confusion and complications.
For instance, in 2021 and 2022, Sections 10BB and 10B did not require information on trustees, but now, in 2023, trustees’ information must be included and verified against the trust’s profile. While this appears well-intentioned, the implementation has been nothing short of disastrous. The website now imposes an additional layer of validation, including Aadhar authentication for CA-filed 10BB form acceptance, causing submission failures and mounting frustrations.
The Efile helpdesk, after exhausting all basic troubleshooting measures, cites extreme server load due to a rush of trusts filing their audit reports just before the 31st October deadline. This means the Government has not arranged enough server space and bandwidth to address the implementation of technological updates. How do we address irresponsible behavior by the Government, trying to make Trust more responsible?
The grievance addressing mechanism is equally chaotic, with the grievance redressal officer’s mailbox consistently full as so many grievances have been raised due to inadequate foresight of the challenges the trust will be facing.
The pressing question is whether this hasty implementation of major policy changes in trusts and charitable institutions, which increases administrative costs and stifles volunteering, will ultimately affect the ability of these organizations to continue their charitable work and attract volunteers.
If the answer is a resounding “yes.” It is imperative that we communicate these issues to the government together and address our concerns to the Finance Minister and have a Joint delegate of representatives from different Trust meet him and share a white paper about how this hasty implementation of policy, without consultations with the stakeholder will force many charitable institutes to close down due to increasing administrative expenses and lack of critical volunteers who can conduct this functions.
The Future of volunteering and charitable work hangs in balance. It is time to discuss @venkat , @kartheevidya @prahalathan @irfanbashirshah , share opinions, and take action.