Parliament panel favours name change for ICWAI

Aisha (Finance Professional) (7874 Points)

22 October 2008  

THE Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India's (ICWAI) efforts to change its name to Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of India (ICMAI) may soon bear fruit, with a Parliamentary Committee endorsing the proposal.

The Standing Committee on Finance in its report on the Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2003 has recommended that the nomenclature of ICWAI should be changed to ICMAI. The committee noted that though the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) was opposed to the change in nomenclature, as the use of word `management' would create confusion, the Government was not averse to the idea of name change.

To explore the service potential of ICWAI professionals abroad, the institute has been pitching for a name change. The ICWAI professionals felt that the name of Cost and Works Accountants could hinder the professional members of management accounting in India from having a level playing field to negotiate in mutual recognition agreements .

The institute has been making a case before the Ministry of Company Affairs, arguing that the services of the modern cost accountants are closely linked to performance improvement of different kinds of management groups in an organisation.