Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Emblem of ICAI as given by Sri Aurobindo
Abbreviation	ICAI
Formation	1 July 1949; 74 years ago (1949-07-01)
Legal status	Established under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the Parliament of India
Headquarters	ICAI Bhawan, Post Box No. 7100, Indraprastha Marg, New Delhi 110002, India
Coordinates	28°37′40″N 77°14′32″E / 28.627815°N 77.242135°E / 28.627815; 77.242135
Region	India
Membership	4,00,000+(2024)[1]
Official language	English, Hindi
President	Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal[2]
Vice President	Charanjot Singh Nanda[3]
Secretary	Jai Kumar Batra[4]
Parent organization	Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India
Website	www.icai.org

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is India's largest

In India,

financial statements

in India.

Members of the institute are known as ICAI Chartered Accountants or ICAI Accountants (either

in India. In 2010, it promoted eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) India as a section 8 Company to take over this responsibility from it. Now, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) India is an established jurisdiction of XBRL International Inc.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 passed by the Parliament of India with the objective of regulating the accountancy profession in India.

.

History

The Indian Companies Act, 1913 passed in pre-independent India prescribed various books which had to be maintained by a Company registered under that Act. It also required the appointment of a formal Auditor with prescribed qualifications to audit such records. In order to act as an auditor, a person had to acquire a restricted certificate from the local government upon such conditions as may be prescribed. The holder of a restricted certificate was allowed to practice only within the province of an issue and in the language specified in the restricted certificate. In 1918 a course called Government Diploma in Accountancy was launched in Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics of Bombay (now known as Mumbai). On passing this diploma and completion of three years of articled training under an approved accountant, a person was held eligible for grant of an unrestricted certificate. This certificate entitling the holder to practice as an auditor throughout India. Later on, the issue of restricted certificates was discontinued in the year 1920.

In 1930, it was decided that the

.

Unlike most other

On 23 September 2019 chartered accountancy students organized protests under leadership of teacher CA Praveen Sharma, named "Dear ICAI please change" at over 200 institute branches across India and on social media demanding among other things right to re-checking of CA exam answer sheets. At present as per CA regulations, re-checking of answer sheets are not allowed.

Motto

The

eagle in the center and a quotation from the Upanishad: Ya Aeshu Suptaeshu Jagruti. The emblem along with the motto was placed at the first meeting of the Council of the Institute and was accepted amongst many other emblems placed by other members of the council.

Apart from its emblem, ICAI also has a separate logo for its members. As a part of a brand building exercise, ICAI introduced this separate new CA logo for the use of its members in 2007.^[17] The logo is free for use by all members of ICAI subject to certain conditions.^[18] The logo was launched by the then Minister of Corporate Affairs, Prem Chand Gupta at the occasion of the Chartered Accountant Day (1 July) in the presence of the then President of ICAI Sunil Talati. Members of ICAI cannot use the ICAI emblem, but they are encouraged to use the CA logo instead on their official stationery.

ICAI is a founder member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC),^[19] South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA),^[20] and Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA)^[21] and International Innovation Network (IIN). ICAI is an Associate member of the Chartered Accountants Worldwide, Member of International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC).

Membership

Members of the Institute are known as Chartered Accountants. Becoming a member requires passing the prescribed examinations, 24 months of practical training and meeting other requirements under the Act and Regulations. The institute has more than 3,90,000 members currently.

Associates and fellows

Generally, associates are members of the institute with less than five years of membership after which they become entitled to apply for being a fellow member. Some associate members, particularly those not in practice, often voluntarily chose not to apply to be a fellow due to a variety of reasons.

An associate member who has been in continuous practice in India or has worked for a commercial or government organization for at least five years and meets other conditions as prescribed can apply to the institute to get designated as a "Fellow". Responsibilities and voting rights of both types of members remain the same but only fellows can be elected to the council and regional councils of ICAI. Fellows are perceived as enjoying a higher status due to their long professional experience.

Practicing Chartered Accountants

Any member wanting to engage in public practice has to first apply for and obtain a Certificate of Practice (COP) from the Council of ICAI.^[22] Only members holding a Practicing Certificate may act as statutory auditors of Indian companies.

Companies in India cannot practice profession of accountancy.

Role of Chartered Accountants

Chartered accountants work in all fields of business and finance, including auditing, taxation, financial and general management. Some are engaged in public practice work, others work in the private sector and some are employed by government bodies.

Council of the institute

The management of the affairs of the institute is undertaken by a council constituted under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.^[6] The council consists of 32 elected fellow members and up to 8 members nominated by the Government of India. The elected members of the council are elected under the single transferable vote system by the members of the institute. The council is re-elected every three years. The council elects two of its members to be president and vice-president who hold office for one year. The president is the chief executive authority of the council.^[23]

Regions and branches

ICAI has five regions : Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central. As on 15 July 2019, ICAI have 164 Branches so far. Out of total 164 Branches, 99 branches are having their own premises which include 14 Branches (presently functioning from Rented Premises) who have procured land on which construction is either commenced or construction is under-way. 16 Branches (functioning from own premises) have procured land where either construction has started or construction is under-way. 51 Branches do not own either land or building.

Presidents

ICAI's first president was Mr. G.P. Kapadia (1949 to 1952). CA. Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal is the current president.^[24]

Code of ethics

The institute has a detailed code of ethics and actions in contravention of such code results in disciplinary action against the erring members. The institute publishes a members' handbook containing the Chartered Accountants Act 1949, Chartered Accountants Regulations 1988, Professional Opportunities for Members – an Appraisal, Code of Ethics and Manual for members. These together form the basis of regulation of the profession. The council also has a Peer Review Board that ensures that in carrying out their professional attestation services assignments, the members of the institute (a) comply with the Technical Standards laid down by the institute and (b) have in place proper systems (including documentation systems) for maintaining the quality of the attestation services work they perform.^[25]

Disciplinary process

The Disciplinary Directorate, the Board of

Authority.

It should be borne in mind that this disciplinary proceeding is not in lieu of or an alternative for criminal proceedings in a court. Criminal proceedings against a Chartered Accountant and disciplinary action by ICAI are two separate issues and one need not wait for another to be completed first.[27]

Actions

One of the public actions of The ICAI Disciplinary Committee in the 2009–2010 time period was proceedings for professional misconduct against two auditors from the firm

.

Other publicized actions included, the

The names of the members found guilty of misconduct are published on ICAI's website. The ICAI website lists 35 as the number of cases in which inquiry was completed by the Disciplinary Committee in the past one year since February 2010. The list of members held guilty of professional or other misconduct is published periodically.[29]

Request for more power

Many of the recent^[timeframe?] financial frauds and scams related to organizations that had multinational accounting firms as their auditors. These multinational firms cannot legally practice in India but they are practicing in India by surrogate means, operating through tie-ups with local firms, though the partners involved are from India, since only a member of the institute can be an auditor of an Indian entity. The example for this is an elaborate list, Price Waterhouse in case of Global Trust Bank Scam, again Price Waterhouse in Satyam Computer Services Limited scam, Ernst and Young in the Maytas case. ICAI lacks jurisdictional powers to punish these or for that matter any firm, as under its current regulations it only has the power to proceed against individual members. The institute has asked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India to grant additional powers so that it may proceed against firms whose partners or employees are frequent offenders.^[30] ICAI also has sent a proposal to the Government of India to amend the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 in order to enable to it to impose a fine of ₹ 1,00,00,000/- on audit firms if they are found guilty of colluding with companies to commit a fraud.^[31]

Qualification

A person is eligible to apply for membership either by passing all three levels of examinations ( Foundation, Intermediate and Final ) prescribed by ICAI and completing 24 months of practical training or by availing themselves of exemptions under

(MRAs).

ICAI has MRAs and MOUs with the

Examination

Entry to the profession can be made by taking the CA Foundation Course after completion of schooling (12th grade). Alternatively, graduates may train as an articled assistant for three years in a chartered firm before final exam or after completion of Intermediate of Cost Management Accountant or Company Secretary. A comprehensive 100 hours of information technology training and an orientation programme for soft skills development have to be completed before being articled. 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.^[24]

ICAI has entered into an agreement with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), to help CA students acquire a Bachelor's degree and master's degree by writing six papers / five papers respectively. For example, a bachelor's degree in Commerce can be obtained from IGNOU with a major in accounting and finance provided the student is able to provide the grades received in Foundation and Intermediate and pass the term end examination conducted by IGNOU. Similarly based on the grades in Final would be taken for Masters. This initiative has helped a lot of students attain both the degrees without any duplication of subjects and credits.^[33][34]

ICAI offers study materials and describes the syllabus in great detail via a prospectus.^[35] While ICAI claims that this study material on the website is sufficient for motivated students to study, most students opt to attend oral coaching classes or learn from e-learning portals.

Membership through MRA

The second method of obtaining membership is through

or MRAs. ICAI has entered into MRAs with several institutes globally, of equivalent standing, to enable members of those institutes to acquire membership of ICAI and to enable the members of ICAI to gain membership of its counterpart in other countries. This is done by granting some exemptions in the regular scheme of examination and training.

ICAI currently has MRAs with following professional accounting bodies:

• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal^[36]
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (since 20 November 2008)^[37]
• CPA Australia (originally signed in February 2009 and re-signed in September 2014)^[38][39]
• CPA Canada^[40]
• CPA Ireland^[41]
• The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants^[42]
• CPA Australia^[43]
• Chartered Accountants New Zealand^[44]
• National Board of Accountants & Auditors, Tanzania^[45]
• Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya^[46]

ICAI is also in the process of negotiating MRAs with Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Certified General Accountants Association of Canada.

Technical co-operation agreements

The ICAI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with professional accounting bodies of various countries. These MOUs aim at establishing mutual co-operation between the two institutions for the advancement of accounting knowledge, professional and intellectual development, advancing the interests of their respective members and positively contributing to the development of the accounting profession.^[47]

Currently ICAI has MOUs with following professional accounting bodies:

• Accounting and Auditing Standards Board of Bhutan, Bhutan (signed on 22 November 2013)^[33]
• The Vietnam Association of Certified Public Accountants, Vietnam^[48]
• Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE (signed on 4 January 2011)^[49]
• College of Banking and Financial Studies, Oman^[50]
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal

The MoUs with CPA Afghanistan and Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) are in pipeline.

Placement

The institute maintains a placement portal on its web site for qualified members and partially qualified students.^[51] This is supplemented with campus placement events and advertising through its professional journals and website.

Technical standards

ICAI formulates and issues technical standards to be followed by Chartered Accountants and others. Non-compliance of these standards by the members will lead to disciplinary action against them. The technical standards issued by ICAI include Accounting Standards, Engagement, and Quality Control Standards, Standards on Internal Audit, Corporate Affairs Standard, Accounting Standards for Local Bodies, etc.

Accounting Standards

As of 2010^[update], the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has issued 32 Accounting Standards. These are numbered AS-1 to AS-7 and AS-9 to AS-32 (AS-8 & AS-6 is no longer in force since it was merged with AS-26 and AS-10).

is not an independent body. It can only consider accounting standards recommended by ICAI and advise the Government of India to notify them under the Companies Act, 2013. Further, the Accounting Standards so notified are applicable only to companies registered under the companies act, 2013. For all other entities, the accounting standards issued the ICAI continue to apply.

Convergence with IFRS

The inception of the idea of

, the issuer of IFRS, is also supporting the ICAI in its endeavors towards convergence. ICAI has revised/formulated Ind AS on the basis of the amendments and new IFRS issued by the IASB subsequent to February 2011. IFRS-converged Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) has been implemented in India in a phased manner from 1 April 2015 being the voluntary date of adoption of Ind AS. The mandatory application of Ind AS has been restricted to listed and unlisted companies with a net worth of Rs. 500 crore and above from the accounting year beginning on or after 1 April 2016. With effect on 1 April 2017, all listed companies and unlisted companies having a net worth of Rs. 250 crore and above would be required to prepare their financial statements in accordance with the applicable Ind AS. Banks and NBFCs are also required to implement Ind AS on 1 April 2018 onwards based on the criteria of net worth.

In order to ensure that these standards are implemented in the same spirit in which these have been formulated, ICAI has been providing guidance to members through its various initiatives such as the issuance of Educational Materials on Ind AS containing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). For addressing transition and implementation related queries clarifications on a timely basis are also being issued by the ICAI. Queries raised are also addressed through Support-desk for implementation of Ind AS. Apart from this, Certificate Course on Ind AS, In-house training programmes on Ind AS for corporate and regulatory bodies are also being organized to educate and train the members on these standards.

Engagement and Quality Control Standards

Engagement and Quality Control Standards comprises the following Standards: 1 Standards on Auditing (SAs), to be applied in the audit of historical financial information. 2 Standards on Review Engagements (SREs), to be applied in the review of historical financial information. 3 Standards on Assurance Engagements (SAEs), to be applied in assurance engagements, other than audits and reviews of historical financial information. 4 Standards on Related Services (SRSs), to be applied to engagements involving the application of agreed-upon procedures to information, compilation engagements, and other related services engagements, as may be specified by the ICAI. The aforesaid Standards are collectively known as Engagement Standards. 5. Standards on Quality Control (SQCs) – These Standards are to be applied for all services covered by the Engagement Standards as described above. As of October 2017^[update] ICAI has issued 46 Engagement and Quality Control Standards (formerly known as Auditing and Assurance Standards) covering various topics relating to

Forensic Accounting and Investigation Standards (FAIS)

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has constituted a committee to deliberate on FAIS, which are expected to be framed by the end of this year 2020. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India will be the first body in the accounting world to develop a full set of FAIS standards for forensic professionals and stakeholders, The proposed standards would help Forensic Accounting and Investigation professionals to conduct their examinations in a highly professional manner and collect evidences which may be subject to high level of scrutiny in a court of law.[56]

Notable members

This article's list of people may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are members of this list, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (November 2022)

Finance and accounting

• Srikant Datar, dean of Harvard Business School
• Radhe Shyam Agarwal, co-founder and executive chairman of Emami
• Srikanth Balachandran, global CHRO of Bharti Airtel
• Pramod Bhasin, president, CEO, Genpact
• Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group
• Parvataneni Brahmayya, founder of Brahmayya & Co., first CA firm in India
• Nitin Soni, CEO of Adhayyan Books International
• Piyush Goyal, incumbent minister of commerce & industry, Minister of Railways, former minister of coal, former minister of finance and corporate affairs, Government of India
• Niranjan Hiranandani, real estate businessman, founder of Hiranandani Group
• Krish Iyer, CEO of Walmart India
• IIFL
• Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, investor
• Shekar Kapur
  , film director
• Sajid Nadiadwala, film producer, director and writer
• Naina Lal Kidwai, first Indian woman who pursued MBA from Harvard University, group general manager and country head of HSBC India
• T. K. Kurien, CEO of Wipro
• Keki Mistry, ex-CEO of HDFC Bank
• R. S. Lodha, former chairman of Birla Corporation
• Vinay Maloo, founder and chairman of Enso Group
• T. N. Manoharan, Padma Shri awardee
• Keki Mistry, vice chairman and CEO of HDFC Bank
• Keshav R Murugesh, group CEO of WNS Global Services
• Muthoot Group
• Dinesh Nandwana, founder and managing director and CEO of Vakrangee Limited
• V. G. Narayanan, professor of accounting & management, Harvard Business School, USA
• Motilal Oswal Group
• T.V. Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education, former CFO of Infosys
  , Padma Shri awardee
• Girish Paranjpe, venture capitalist
• Deepak Parekh, chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation & HDFC Bank
• Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, incumbent Sherpa of India to G20, former Minister of commerce, Minister of Railways, Minister for Civil Aviations, Government of India
• Aditya Puri, MD & CEO of HDFC Bank
• India Today Group
• Chitra Ramkrishna, former CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE)
• Sethurathnam Ravi, former chairman Bombay Stock Exchange
• Prannoy Roy, chairman of NDTV^[57]
• Subhash Runwal, founder and chairman of Runwal Group
• Dhivya Suryadevara, CFO of General Motors
• N.J. Yasaswy
  , founder of the ICFAI Business School
• Ritesh Tiwari, executive director, finance & IT and chief financial officer of Hindustan Unilever

Other domains

• Arun Singh
  , MP from Uttar Pradesh from 5 December 2019. Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary and Headquarter Incharge from 17 June 2015
• Subhash Chandra Baheria, Member of the 16th Lok Sabha,
• Thomas Chazhikadan, Member of Parliament from Kottayam, Kerala
• Raghav Chadha, MLA from Rajinder Nagar & Vice Chairman Delhi Jal Board, politician, AAP member
• Anil R. Dave, Judge of the Supreme Court of India
• Buddhadeb Guha, novelist
• N. D. Gupta, former president ICAI, Rajya Sabha Member From NCT of Delhi politician, Aam Aadmi Party
• Vishaka Hari, singer of Harikatha
• Vijay Govindarajan, NYT and WSJ best selling author, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Tuck School at Dartmouth
• Swadeshi Jagaran Manch
  , journalist
• Bhupen Khakhar, painter
• K. Rahman Khan, Minister of Minority Affairs in UPA-II, former deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha
• Atul Satya Koushik, Indian theatre director and playwright
• R. K. Kumar, former minister of state for finance
• Pragnya Mohan, international sportsperson
• Harish Salve, Padma Bhushan, former Solicitor General of India
• Narendra Kumar Salve
  , former Union minister and president of board of control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
• Kirit Somaiya, politician, MP for BJP
• Sanjay Subrahmanyan, musician
• Rameshwar Thakur, former Union Minister of India, Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
• G. Venkateswaran, film producer
• V. Vijayasai Reddy, Rajyasabha MP from YSRCP
• Yakub Memon,Terrorist, involved in 1993 Bombay Serial Blasts.

See also

• Education in India
• National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

• Official website