ICAI to defer Second Phase of Peer Review Mandate covering Firms Auditing unlisted public companies

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has notified Deferment of second phase of Peer Review Mandate.

The Council at its 407th Meeting held from 7th – 9th January 2022 decided to mandate the Peer Review process for coverage of more firms under Peer Review process. An Announcement dated 12.02.2022 in this regard was hosted on the website. Further clarifications on the mandate were issued by the Council at its 410th Meeting held on 24th – 25th March 2022. Another Announcement dated 11.04.2022 in this regard was hosted on the website

Considering that some Practice Units which require to get themselves Peer Reviewed under the 2nd phase of the Peer Review mandate are not ready for the same, the Council at its 420th Meeting held on 23rd – 24th March, 2023 decided to defer the applicability of the second phase of the mandate by three months to be made effective from July 1, 2023 as one time measure.

Accordingly, the second phase of the mandate is applicable w.e.f July 1, 2023 for the following Practice Units:

Practice Units which propose to undertake Statutory Audit of unlisted public companies having paid-up capital of not less than rupees five hundred crores or having annual turnover of not less than rupees one thousand crores or having, in aggregate, outstanding loans, debentures and deposits of not less than rupees five hundred crores as on the 31st March of immediately preceding financial year: For these Practice Units, there is a pre-requisite of having Peer Review Certificate.

OR

Practice Units rendering attestation services and having 5 or more partners: For these Practice Units, there is a pre-requisite of having Peer Review Certificate before accepting any Statutory audit.

Accordingly Practice Units which accept Statutory audits on or before June 30, 2023 should ensure that they have a Peer Review Certificate at the time of signing.