Before going to decide on suitability of Chartered Accountants (CAs) and Cost Accountants ( ICWAs) for a particular statutory authority ( Salutatory Financial Audit or Cost Audit or Tax audit or Sec 14a and 14AA or any thing) there are certain points to be considered. Both the institutions are claiming , that their institute is more suitable than other. The points are..
1.SYLLABUS CONTENTS OF CA AND ICWA COURSES AND FOCUS : Right from the beginning Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is focusing only on Accounts, Taxation and it does not have strong focus on the internal industry or company management practices .On the other side , ICWAI , included Cost Management Accountancy , Operations Management for strong focus on the internal industry or company management practices . The ICWAI has strong focus on the above subjects and also has very strong focus on Accounts and Taxation. ICWAI has focus on Cost and Management Accountancy , the strong structure of Cost and Management Accountancy is obviously based on the strong foundations of accounts and Taxation.. International Institutes specialized in Management Accountancy have MOUs with ICWAI. So, ICWAI is the sole authority for Management Accountancy . And obviously it states ICWAI is equally strong like CA on Accountancy, Taxation and Audit ( even more strong and advanced than ICAI , because Management Accountancy is based on strong foundations of Accountancy, Taxation)—A person can become a good Judge (like Cost Management Accountancy) only if he is good at law (like Accountancy, Taxation and Audit) .
2.THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PART : Initially in the syllabus of ICAI financial management was not a part. Later for a long time CA did not have Financial Management in its syllabus. This indicates members of ICAI and ICAI are not serious about Fin Mgt. Then how they are eligilible for the posts like VP-Finance, Director-Finance, CFO etc and finance posts?. One more point is “Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) does not have strong focus on the internal industry or company management practices”
3.THE RATIONALE BEHIND ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP : To become Associate member of ICAI, passing of Final exam of CA is sufficient satisfying article ship .The three years period of article is considered as three years of experience and Associate ship is given in ICAI. But , if you consider ICWAI the associate membership will be given if the candidate passes Final course of ICWAI and possesses three years of responsible experience. Definitely becoming Associate of ICWAI is difficult and worthy compared to three years of articles experience. If we compare the required three years of experience for Associate Membership in ICAI and ICWAI (a) In case of Articles of ICAI specific responsibility is not fixed on person (student) , but in case of ICWAI ( the candidate is mostly employee) the three years of experience is in a job where job responsibility is fixed. (b) most of the times, in ICWAI the person works and deals in the system of an industry where management practices and finance functional are present. (c ) The article ship experience is an experience gained as a student , i.e. . Normally understanding or working with half or zero knowledge. In case of ICWAI the three years of experience is with in job responsibility . If it is experience as semi qualified of fully qualified , then it is the experience gained with sound subject understanding. So in case of ICWA , the knowledge gained is more worthy and sound. The depth and scope of learning is more before becoming Associate Member in ICWAI compared to CA.
SO, ICAI SHOULD SERIOUSLY RE-THINK ABOUT ITS ARTICLES AND PROCEDURE OF ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP . IT SHOULD EITHER AVOID ARTICLES OR SHOULD FOLLOW THE PRACTICES OF ICWAI FOR ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP.
4.IGNORING INDUSTRIAL, MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, AND AUDIT : CAs don’t know really much about management practices of Finance ( because only ICWAIs are management accountants , ICWAIs are fully aware of Accounts and Management) , then how CAs are eligible for audit? Even during Articleship also mostly they work under Auditor , not in industry , that also without having attachment to responsibility. A person without Management practices or Industrial Practices is not eligible for audit of organsations. A person can become a good Judge (like Cost Management Accountant) only if he is good at law (like Accountancy, Taxation and Audit) .
5.THE DYNAMICS OF SYLLABUS CHANGE : ICAI is not active in updating in syllabus and passive in equip its students and members to the changing dynamics. Because of the statutory protections that ICAI has , ICAI is mild and passive in changing syllabus. The same can be understood by observing its syllabus changes right from its inception. Financial Management is introduced lately, the dynamic Management Accountancy has no much role .Even now also ICAI is trying for Special Audit under Sec 14A , 14AA just by showing that Indirect Tax is a part of CA curriculum ( without Cost Audit and Management Audit, why such a delayed realization ? Weren’t they aware of the same from several years? ). If having a subject is sufficient for Special Audit, then ICWAI can claim “we are best fit for the posts like Production Manager, COO, because Production and Operations Management is part of ICWAI curriculum”. Without any basic idea on Production and Operations Management , how ICAI can claim for 14AA.
Because of the failure and inability of ICAI in dealing with Finance and Management practices only ICWAI came into existence. Otherwise ICWAI would not have come into picture. Now after several decades , ICAI is claiming “we have expertise of ICWAIs also”. This is like claiming of Type Machine that “I am more suitable than computer in data management”.
One thing is to be remembered “Quality means fitness through knowledge not through ignorance” (see 8.Ignornce and Super ignorance : )
6.THE HARD WORK BEHIND PASS : Persons doing both CA,CWA simultaneously are facing difficulty in passing ICWA than CA. Persons who registered for both CA and ICWA simultaneously are completing CA earlier than ICWA. Number of CAs1,50,000 & ICWAs 40,000. CA syllabus less than ICWA , ICWA syllabus is more. Pass percentage of CA is more.
7.COMARISION WITHOUT STATUTORY PROTECTIONS AND SOUNDNESS: The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India is the only Institute in India that has in its syllabus and training contents the proper blend of cost, management accounting, finance and non-finance subjects required for professional management accounting functions. Needless to mention that in the Finance and Management Accounting Committee of the International Federation of Accountants – earlier known as FMAC and now known as Professional Accountant in Business Committee – ICWAI was represented since its inception and not ICAI. ICWAI syllabus covers in-depth company accounts. It is time them to conduct company audits also like CA. How is the idea to open Income Tax Audit to CWA and also remove CAs from VAT Audit as it is indirect tax feild?ICWAI academic filtration is for more superior and tough than simple CA,world wide management accountant has better acceptance than ordinary/simple CA. International bodies recognized ICWA and as qualification equal to their international standard course and allowed ICWAIs to practice in their countries.
And those international bodies gave mutual recognition between their course and ICWA.
But, CA is not given such recognition by international institutions , and ICAI is struggling to get such recognition.
8.IGNORNCE AND SUPER IGNORANCE : Without knowing the above facts , ignorantly some people feel CA is difficult and they have good knowledge than ICWA. They are ignorant people. There is another category , this is SUPER Ignorant people . These people take opinion of these ignorant people and say CA is difficult . The third category people , they argue CA is ultimate in Finance and Accounts and all statutory powers should be given to CAs . These people show the sample of ignorant and super ignorant peoples’ opinion to prove their argument.
9.IS THE RESISTANCE FROM ICAI FOR NAME CHANGE PART OF SELF DEFENSE? : Cost accountants are also called Management Accountants all over the world in UK , US, Canada and even in Pakistan and Bangladesh also. Why that recognition is not given by Indian Govt? Even for name change also govt is not ready. Is this to standardize the argument in point 8?
Why ICWAIs should not be defined under Section 288(2) of the Income Tax Act?
We are experiencing the frauds of audit by CAs ( recently Satyam).
Why CA has more recognition than ICWA in spite of
· Easiness
· Less syllabus
· Less focus on management and financial management practices compared to ICWA
· With less dynamism in syllabus change/ up gradation compared to ICWA
· Easier way of becoming associate member compared to ICWA
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