core sector communique

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)

Kolkata, June 27^th 2011: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's Eastern Regional Council held a seminar to share the latest initiatives taken by the Institute and also the action plan for the year 2011-12.

G Ramaswamy (CA), President, ICAI, said the New Companies Act and the biggest taxation reform in India – Goods and Service Tax (GST) will soon come into effect. ICAI had submitted suggestions on GST to the concerned ministries and is closely working with the government.

“We have also sought for an appointment with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee and would extend all our expertise and support to the state government,” Mr G Ramaswamy, President, ICAI, said here in Kolkata.

The primary goal of ICAI is to uphold the public confidence in this Institution and to create global chartered accountants by inculcating best international practices in them. The endeavor would be to bring ICAI in the forefront of economic activity and create a unique ICAI brand that would be recognized and treated with respect, not just in India but all over the world. ICAI has signed mutual recognition agreements with institutes in Britain, Wales, Australia and Canada.

“Indian CAs who pass one of the toughest exams to become Chartered Accountants can go to these countries and, pass qualifying exams and set up practice there. Indian CAs in fact find it much easier to qualify in the exams in these countries,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

ICAI has constituted a Group to provide necessary inputs / suggestions on effectively addressing the issue of black money in view of the public interest. These inputs / suggestions, given by the Group, would be submitted to the Government.

ICAI is in the process of bringing out “guidelines and rules” for conversion of existing chartered accountant firms to ‘limited liability partnership (LLP)’ entities which would help them to grow bigger and increase their capacity.

Mr Ramaswamy said that except of Maharashtra and Gujarat, cooperative audit was not being practiced. He said other states should follow suit and pledged ICAI's support to West Bengal government in such matters.

ICAI has played a proactive role to train its members in industry as well as in practice in this area. To meet the varying requirements of different stakeholders and create mass awareness about the preparedness with regard to the convergence, so far 3100 members have been successfully trained through 100-hour Intensive Training Programme of the International Finance Reporting Standards certification course across the nation.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), under the aegis of Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) of the Government of India, has entrusted the ICAI with the task to educate the present and prospective investors of our nation about the intricacies of capital market. The objective of the initiative is to create better awareness among common people for investment in corporate sector towards creating a strong India Inc.

International Initiatives

The biggest issue before the institute is ‘globalisation of Indian accountants’. India is growing at a rapid pace. A lot of FDI is coming into the country, Indian companies are setting up offices abroad, acquiring firms overseas and merging in order to grow bigger and go global. As a part of International initiatives, ICAI would like to have strategic collaborations with more international accounting bodies so that it can provide a global outlook to CA members.

In order to achieve the same, ICAI has tied up with many accounting institutes in the past. Recently a MoU was signed with College Of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS), Oman. The ICAI shall provide assistance and support to CBFS in capacity building of Omani Nationals in Finance, Accounts, Auditing, IT, Corporate Governance and allied areas under the MOU. The ultimate objective of this MOU is to create a competent and well trained reservoir of professionals adept in core skills in the sphere of Finance, Accounts, Auditing IT, Corporate Governance and allied areas at Oman. Institute is also working on a similar agreement with the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

ICAI Web TV: The Institute would soon be launching ICAI Web TV to provide support to the members towards continuing professional education. Educative videos will be hosted on the ICAI Web TV which will enable members to stream lectures of eminent speakers and watch them on their desktops, laptops and mobile phones at their convenience. All important live events of ICAI would be beamed live on Web and Mobile platform using cutting-edge technology.

Towards MoU with various Universities: To provide students and members with a great learning opportunity, the Institute has taken several initiatives and has also entered into MoUs with some of the Indian Universities - Bharathiar University and IGNOU. Taking this forward, the institute had a meeting with University of Madras towards entering into a MoU to provide opportunity to the members and students to pursue courses like PhD and Masters and Bachelors in Commerce and Management to be awarded by University of Madras. ICAI has also proposed that research scholars conducting research under Accounting Research Foundation (ARF) should also be able to pursue PhD programme.

The talks are also underway with Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), Allahabad, to enter into an Agreement with the Institute to cover areas like PhD, joint MDP, joint workshops, etc. These tie-ups with different universities will give exemptions to CAs who wish to pursue MBA/PhD.