Take account: CAs close in on MBAs in salaries

Aisha (Finance Professional) (8099 Points)

03 November 2007  
MBA finance grads watch out, CAs are inching closer in terms of pay packages. In the latest round of placements of CAs, held last month, average salaries have shot up to almost Rs 6 lakh per annum. The average salary of CAs reached to a new high of Rs 5.94 lakh compared with Rs 4.79 lakh in February-March, 2007.

Of late, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has been working hard to prepare its members to compete with MBA students. The institute has also introduced changes in its curriculum to groom new students as per the changing scenario.

In his recent message to its members, ICAI president Sunil Talati said, “I must say that the new breed of young students are so smart and intelligent that the number of students passing out in final examination and becoming our members is increasing every year. This is a good sign. It is not that the examination papers are easy, or results are liberal; it is in fact a sign that new young intelligent and talented students are joining our profession appreciating the new curriculum.”

The campus placements were not limited to about 100-odd students like typical B-schools. There were as many as 1,151 students recruited out of 1,823 students who participated in the September-October campus placements. There were 101 companies comprising 252 interview panels participated at 19 centres in campus interviews, organised by ICAI.

"A number of students could not get the job profile and company of their choice since we do not allow students to appear in more than six interviews. However, they will be able to find the suitable opportunity through our online platform from where headhunters can access to our data base,” said ICAI chairman of committee for members in industry Uttam Prakash Agarwal. Not only banks and financial institutes but a number of IT, energy, telecom, engineering, FMCG and aviation companies also participated.

Landmark Gulf Group offered the highest package of Rs 12 lakh and recruited 17 CAs for international postings. Standard Chartered offered anywhere between Rs 7 and Rs 11 lakh to 11 CAs. Citi Bank, Britannia Industries, ICICI Bank and ITC too made some of the most attractive offers to fresh CAs.

While ICICI Bank recruited as many as 303 students, Reliance Industries recruited 71, Infosys 47 and Vedanta 45 CAs. ICAI conducted campus placements at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Vadodara, Bhilai, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Ernakulam, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Pune and Surat.