ICAI President Address on CA, CWA, and CS (Amendment) Bill, 2022

Dear professional colleagues, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has always been proactive on the matters concerning the profession.

As you all are aware the chartered accountants the cost and works accountants and the company secretaries amendment bill 2021 that was introduced in the lok sabha on 17th Dec 2021 and was subsequently referred to the parliamentary standing committee on finance for further deliberations was passed by both the houses of the parliament.

Some of the important provisions included in the bill affecting the profession are change in the composition of the board of discipline and disciplinary committee including fixation of timelines for various processes, formation of the coordination committee of the three professional institutes, power to take action against the Firm’s.

Friends, I would like to inform you all that many of the provisions including power to take action against the firms,  enhanced penalty for falsely claiming to be a member, maintenance of register of firms, duration of the council terms were earlier recommended, by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

I would also like to share that the bill makes no mention of IIA, while some concerns are being raised about the curtailment of autonomy granted to the profession.

I wish to quote honorable Finance Minister who in the course of debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha stated “I recognize the importance of the three pillars The Chartered Accountants, The Cost Accountants and The Company Secretaries in the corporate governance structure. The minister also said the objective is also to strengthen all the three of them without in any way affecting the autonomy that they enjoy”

In view of the above developments ICAI held a strategy meeting on the 5th April and discussions were held towards developing future strategy for the Institute.

To position the profession in the right perspective capacity building of membership for sunrise sectors and strengthening digital capabilities

In this direction another meeting was organized with the Honorable Past Presidents of The institute on 6th of April to take guidance of our past leaders who have led the institute to its glorious height.

I must let you know that during this meeting record number of past presidents participated and shared their insights on the future of the profession.

On the 7th of April myself and vice president Aniket Talathi had a meeting with the SEBI chairperson where in discussions focused on the role of ICAI in establishing framework and standards for social auditors, quality of audit and impact of technology.

As I have shared earlier the revised scheme of education and training has been developed in conformity with the best practices adopted by the international accountancy bodies national education policy 2020 and taking note of revolution in the information technology.

It has been a constant endeavor of ICAI to keep its students updated on the changing developments while also upgrading their knowledge base and skill sets the draft revised scheme was earlier submitted to the ministry of corporate affairs for their in-principle approval.

I am pleased to inform that on 8th April the draft new curriculum was discussed in detail with the ministry of corporate affairs.