New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) Acknowledging that “perception is a big challenge” for the institute, ICAI President Debashis Mitra on Tuesday said it has taken disciplinary action against erring members and asserted that everyone should not be painted with the same brush.
His remarks come against the backdrop of instances of some chartered accountants coming under the regulatory scanner in connection with various corporate wrong doings.
Addressing a press meet in the national capital, Mitra, who took over as the President last month, shared data about disciplinary action initiated against its members over a 15-year period and emphasised that guilty will not be spared by the institute.
“Don’t paint us all with the same brush,” he said, adding that there are excellent Chartered Accountants (CAs).
During the period from 2007 till December 2021, he said seven individuals were removed from ICAI’s (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) membership for wrong doings and two were removed for more than two years.
As many as 153 CAs were debarred from practising for up to six months and 57 CAs faced similar action for a period ranging from six months to one year.
A total of 48 CAs were debarred for a period ranging from 1 to 5 years and 313 CAs were reprimanded during the given period.
“Perception is a big challenge for us,” Mitra said as he responded queries related to disciplinary action taken by the institute.
ICAI Vice President Aniket Sunil Talati said even if somebody is removed for a week, it hurts their professional reputation.
To a query related to the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), Mitra said, “I think totally both sets of audit regulators can co-exist”.
There have been differences between auditing regulator NFRA and ICAI over various issues.
Responding to a question on whether there could be a merger of the apex institutes of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries and ICAI emerge as the super institute, Mitra said each of the institutes are very strong.
“Don’t mind me saying so. Sometimes, it is difficult to manage on wife and you are asking me to handle three wives. Very difficult…,” he remarked.
Separately, ICAI has plans to develop and issue a single Comprehensive Framework for Social Audit Standards for audit of Impact Reporting of Social Enterprises listed on Social Stock Exchange (SSE) and area specific Social Audit Standards.
The standards would cover all aspects of assurance of impact reporting like, scope, engagement acceptance, basic principles, audit procedures, assurance report and documentation.
Besides, ICAI will soon introduce a new scheme for education and training, wherein emphasis would be more on development of higher order skills of application, analysis and interpretation.
A special feature of the new scheme would be the mandatory multi-disciplinary case study at the final level, which would help students integrate professional knowledge in different subject areas, analyse and apply such knowledge in problem solving.
The scheme also intends to focus more on practical training and will also offer self-paced online modules, where in working students can learn and qualify at their own pace, ICAI said in a release.
Talati said it will be for the first time that the CA course is being revised in 5 years instead of 10 years.
For the first time in the country, ICAI would be hosting World Congress Of Accountants (WCOA). It will held from November 18-21 in Mumbai and theme would be ‘Building Trust Enabling Sustainability’ Around 6,000 delegates from over 135 countries are expected to participate in the event.
ICAI has also decided to extend a 75 per cent concession in registration course fee for all levels of CA courses to the students registering from Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Island and 8 Northeast states till March 31, 2025. The states are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. PTI RAM MR MR
