What is the Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund by ICAI?

The Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund is a fund which is for the support of the members of the ICAI and their family members by providing them with funds as financial assistance for maintenance, education and more. The office of CABF is located in New Delhi and is the same as the office of ICAI.

The fund was established in 1962 and then later got registered under the Societies Registration Act,1860 in the name of 'Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund' by the members for ICAI for the benefit of the members of ICAI. The management committee of CABF consists of minimum five and maximum seven members.

Any member that has registered himself as a member of ICAI can also contribute to this fund. For enrolling into this fund, the member of ICAI has to submit a prescribed form which is duly filled and signed in the prescribed manner to the regional office of ICAI and deposit the subscription fees along with this form. After doing all the formalities the member officially becomes a part of the CABF.

Becoming a member of this fund is not compulsory for all the members of ICAI. The membership to the fund is completely voluntary and the contribution towards the fund is also completely voluntary. It is no obligation upon any member to compulsorily contribute towards the fund.

Objectives of the Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund

The objectives of the CABF Fund is to provide financial assistance for maintenance, education or any other similar purpose to the necessitous person being:-

• persons who are or have been members of the Institute, whether subscribers to the fund or not; or
• wives and children of persons who are or have been members of the Institute, whether subscribers to the fund or not.
• widows and children of deceased persons who have been members of the Institute whether subscribers to the fund or not.
• relatives or others who were dependent for support on a person who has been a member of the Institute, whether subscriber to the fund or not; and who has died without leaving a widow or child.

Membership of the Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund

The membership towards the CABF fund is of two types which is a Life Member and an Ordinary Member. Separate forms are available for both types of membership offered by CABF. One person cannot opt for being both a Life Member and an Ordinary Member. He can either opt for being a Life Member or an Ordinary Member upon his sole discretion.

There are two categories of members:

• Life member- A single payment of Rs. 10000/- shall make a person eligible to be admitted as a life member of the fund w.e.f. 1st January, 2020. Thereafter he shall not be liable to pay any amount on account of subscription and shall be styled as a 'Life Member'.
• Ordinary member- All other members shall be described as 'Ordinary Members' and shall have to pay an annual subscription of Rs.1000/- every year.

Apart from the memberships any member may opt for voluntary contribution for which the minimum amount of contribution at any point of time is Rs. 20. There is no limit that has been prescribed for the maximum contribution therefore any member can contribute any amount ranging from Rs. 20 to whatever they find suitable to contribute further.

The payment for the same can be made through the SSP Portal of ICAI by logging in into the member section. It can be paid with the membership fees or even separately by logging in into the SSP Member Section. The fund has a PAN(Permanent Account Number) which is AAAAC0065G and is allowed to issue receipts of the contribution made by the members respectively.

All the subscriptions and voluntary contribution amounts made towards the CABF are eligible for deduction under Section 80(G) of the Income Tax Act,1961. The transactions happening in the CABF are very transparent and the Balance Sheet is available to view on the website of CABF. The Balance Sheets for the years can be accessed by the given link- https://cabf.icai.org/BalanceSheet

The Financial assistance to the members in this fund is provided in three ways which are:-

• Ex-Gratia Financial Assistance from CABF
• Financial Assistance for CABF for Medical Treatment
• Grant of monthly Financial Assistance from CABF

If any adverse happening occurs then an application in the prescribed form needs to be submitted to ICAI. Application for financial assistance has to be made in the prescribed format of ICAI along with all the supporting documents for the same.

Maximum monthly assistance available to a member or persons eligible to receive the assistance is from Rs.15000/- to Rs.25000/- per month according to the circumstances of the use renewable after one year. This is for maintenance of family of members/widow/relatives of deceased members.

Financial assistance will be given only to the members/widows/relatives whose monthly family income is not more than Rs. 25000/- pm.

Ex-Gratia Financial Assistance is provided of Rs.150000/-  to the legal heir of the deceased member incase of accidental death/unnatural death below the age of 55 years against the provided claim.

Like CABF is a benefit towards the members, in the same way ICAI also has a separate fund for the students which is called CASBF. CASBF stands for Chartered Accountants Students Benevolent Fund which is set up for the benefit of students. It was established in August,2008.

The Board of Trustees has decided to provide financial assistance of Rs. 1500/- p.m, for articled assistants who are registered for Intermediate (IPC)/IPCC course and Rs. 2000/- P.M. for those students registered for final course and are currently undergoing articled/industrial training in accordance with The Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988 and are poor, needy but meritorious to pursue the Chartered Accountancy course for one year with effect from 1st April, 2016 to 31st March, 2017 to be paid in lump sum, subject to filing of required application.

Eligibility Criteria for the Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund

The eligibility criteria for obtaining financial assistance from CASBF are as under:

• Annual Income of parents from all sources must be less than Rs. 1.80 Lakh
• Currently undergoing articled/industrial training as per C.A. Regulation,1988.

The discretion of the Board of ICAI is final and applicable to all members.