30 Lakhs CAs Needed by 2047; ICAI’s President Shares Future Visions

The New President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal, announced on Wednesday that 1.29 lakh students have registered to take the chartered accountancy qualification exam in May-June under the new syllabus scheme that was launched last year.

The ICAI is India’s apex regulatory authority for the chartered accountancy profession and education.

Since the new scheme was established on July 1, 2023, ICAI has received 49,000 registrations at the foundational level, 58,900 registrations at the intermediate level, and 21,185 registrations for the final level, Agarwal revealed in a press conference.

The ICAI CA exams are administered twice a year, in May-June and November-December.

The institute plans to hold intermediate and final examinations based on the new syllabus for the first time in early May of this year. The timeline, however, may change with the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, which are expected to be held in the same month.

“It is worth noting that the General Election to the 18th Lok Sabha is set for 2024, and the notification is anticipated. Accordingly, the Examination Committee may reschedule the May 2024 CA Examination if the General Election dates overlap with the current Examination Schedule,” according to an official announcement.

Setting the expectations of the institutes, Agarwal stated that by 2047, India will require more than 30 lakh new CAs to support the rising economy.

“For every trillion dollars of economic growth, 1 lakh chartered accountants are estimated to be required. 30 lakh CAs are estimated to be required by the time India celebrates its 100th anniversary of independence,” said Agarwal.

Currently, the ICAI has four lakh registered CA members.

The expectation, however, is ambitious given that the pass percentage for the CA examination ranges from 10% to 20%. In November 2023, just 3,009 of the 32,907 students who took the final level exam passed.

To meet this demand, the ICAI president intends to assist students as early as possible.

Aggarwal said, “We have signed agreements with over 500 schools and colleges across India. Under these agreements, we hire local faculty and provide them with the resources they need to teach CA courses in their own schools and colleges. We have also included provisions in these agreements to promote school-level career counselling programs, online query resolution and tuition classes.”

Agarwal also emphasized the importance of providing CA students with handholding and free online content.

“We are developing a gateway and urging existing CA members to support at least one CA student. This effort is known as ‘each one, educate one’. We also intend to deliver free lectures from the greatest faculty around to students on our website and YouTube. Even non-CA students can benefit from these lectures and develop an interest in pursuing a career.” he explained.

ICAI Campus Placements

Agarwal also announced the ICAI’s progress in placing students over the last year. Among the 22,000 newly qualified chartered accountants in 2023, almost 9,000 students were hired through campus placements, with 138 organizations making offers. The others, he claimed, chose “better opportunities” outside of campus placement.

“Several chartered accountants had better options and chose not to participate in campus placements, despite receiving offers. There is no unemployment in this course once a student qualifies,” Agarwal stated.

Within India, the maximum package of Rs.24 lakh was offered to a student, whereas the highest package outside was Rs.41 lakh per year. Last year, the average annual compensation for all students was Rs.12 lakh. Currently, a student pays Rs.75,000 over five years to become a chartered accountant.

“We are empowering the middle class of this country to pursue a career in chartered accountancy so that they can get a minimum package of Rs.10 lakh,” Agarwal said in a statement.

Currently, there are 8.5 lakh students taking the CA course in India.

To keep up with technological breakthroughs, the new president has formed a commission to develop artificial intelligence.

AI will assist our CAs in focusing on other compliances, doing in-depth analysis, and advising firms in a rising economy.