On an average, worldwide, only 1 out of 3 adults is financially literate. As per the survey conducted by S&P Global FinLit, Financial Literacy rate in India is 24% as compared to 57% in developed economies such as United States. As partners in nation building Chartered Accountants can play the role of force multipliers in the Financial & Tax Literacy (FTL) initiatives of our country.
CA fraternity has been a silent contributor at various life stages of our clients, family, and friends, acting as the lender of last advice to innumerable people. Let us re-visit few illustrative real-life examples on how CAs play the role of Vitiya Mitra: –
a. When there is an unfortunate and sudden demise in extended family or network, a CA friend (Vitiya Mitra) would receive a stress call from the surviving family members on how to claim monies lying in the deceased bank account or make an urgent mutual fund redemption to tide over the financial crisis
b. When a young citizen responds to a job offer, he or she would reach out to a CA friend (Vitiya Mitra) seeking assistance on the net take home salary that would be deposited in his/ her bank account post TDS implications
c. When a start-up entrepreneur seeks guidance from CA friend (Vitiya Mitra) on share- based compensation payments or tax implications of ESOPs in the hands of his/ her star performing employee
d. When a senior employee reaching his retirement age seeks advise on how to invest his life savings to ensure corpus protection and regular income, he or she reaches out to a CA friend (Vitiya Mitra)
Above are daily life examples where our fraternity keeps selflessly guiding our society in national interests.
As a developing nation our country faces several key challenges and one of them is the low rate of financial literacy in India. Globally financial literacy is now on the agenda of the G 20, financial services regulators, statutory bodies and financial services players
Credit – ICAI
