Dear Members,
During the past six months, as your Acting President I accorded high priority to settlement of crtical issues. It is with satisfaction, I report that ably supported by the Committee and everybody else, your Club has become legally compliant in accordance with the stipulations of the ‘Company’s Act’. Filing of Returns to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) which were pending for several years as reported in the last AGM in Sept’ 2009 has since been completed.
Settlement of the long pending Income Tax case on Hoarding Charges & Entrance Fee have also been settled in favour of Poona Club & so is the outstanding Sales Tax liability case that is now settled with much less amount . All this has been possible due to focussed & unceasing efforts of our Tax Consultants, Finance Committee & Administration .
An end to uncertainty & certainly a great relief to the golfers has come in the form of extension of the Golf Course land lease due to efforts of the Golf Sub Committee and the Legal Sub Committee. We now await sanctioning of the correction deed for the golf course land records which is now at a final stage.
To review the financials of the Club for 09-10, I now give you a quick review of the past six months:
1. Main Club : Your Club’s revenue was severely impacted by recession & swine flu and losses were observed to be approx Rs.41 lakhs by the end of the first half. A focussed & determined approach & Cost Control measures without causing inconvenience to the members reversed the situation. Un-audited figures show a 10 to 20 % drop in costs in second half of the financial year in almost all areas.
High level yet low cost activities at the Club increased footfalls. This also encouraged many Corporates to join the Club. Catering & Bar capitalised on this and ensured that without increasing prices a net surplus of almost three times the previous year was recorded and that too in the swine flu year. All this and more has led to a 11 % increase in income in the second half of 09-10 in spite of reduced interest earnings on Fixed deposits.
Both cost cutting and income generating methodologies have helped to reach an estimated Rs.80 lakhs net surplus in the last six months only at the main Club.
2. Golf Course: The activities at the golf course were less affected by the recession or the swine flu. It is with great satisfaction, I report that in keeping with the past years trend your golf course has again contributed an estimated net surplus of Rs.1 crore plus for the year 2009-10. But, now the time has arrived almost after 17 years of its upgradation when the course needs some major expenses to be able to maintain its unique niche in the country’s golfing society. Amongst other improvements, rain water harvesting is also being planned to save on water cost.
Looking forward at 2010-2011, the revenue budget and Capital budget stand passed by the General Body at the recently held EOGM. Yet, the Managing Committee is committed to ensure that only critical and urgent expenditures will be carried out during the first half of the year.
Getting back our finances into order is the ‘highest priority’ that I have set forth for the remaining term of the current Committee even as we move to up the standards of the Club to meet member satisfaction.
Rekha Krishan
Vice President
(Acting President)
