1. Practice outside India to be reckoned for fellowship:
As per the Scheme of Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 [Section 5(3)], a member is granted fellowship if he has been in continuous practice for five years within India. Recognising the fact that members of the ICAI have also been practising outside India, it has been decided to request the Government for effecting amendment in the CA Act in order to reckon the practice done outside India to become eligible for fellowship.
2. Guidance Note on Tax Audit:
After the introduction of provision for tax audit, the Institute has been bringing out a Guidance Note on Tax Audit to help the members in discharging their responsibilities.
The ICAI has approved the revised edition of Guidance Note on Tax Audit, which includes significant amendments made in the Income-tax Act, modifications made in Form No.3CD, and various developments that have taken place resulting in issuance of guidance from time to time. The revised edition will be released on Chartered Accountants Day, i.e. on 1st July, 2013.
3. Members & Students Services Charter:
On the lines of Citizen’s Charter, the ICAI has in-principle, approved bringing out the Members & Students Services Charter detailing the timelines for completion of various procedural work relating to members and students viz. registration, payment of fees, change of address, issuance of certificate of practice, admission as a fellow member, other engagements, firm activities, students and articleship activities etc. The Charter will be released within next 3 months.
4. Establishing “Centre of Excellence for Quality and Ethics” – A joint effort of 3 sister Institutes:
The Council has decided to set up a Centre of Excellence for Quality and Ethics at Ajmer (Rajasthan) which will be jointly run by all the three sister Institutes. i.e. ICAI(Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), ICWAI (Institute of Cost & Work Accountants of India) & ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India). The 3 professional Institutes will work in harmony to establish and run the Centre and will put together the competencies possessed by each one of them to create a knowledge hub for their respective target audience.
5. Setting up prototypes of “Accountancy Museum”:
In order to preserve the past records, documents and memoirs gathered from various sources, the ICAI had set up “Accountancy Museum” which is functional at ICAI office in Noida. The Museum has been recognised by the Government of India as “Accountancy Museum of India”.
The Archives of ICAI is a repository of the non-current records of the Institute and its regional offices /branches. It is a rich amalgam of historic records, speeches, documents, rare and contemporary photographs, activities /events, press clippings, mementos, shields, awards, audio/video material etc. These constitutes a valuable supplement to the information available amongst other ICAI records.
In order to communicate to the stakeholders regarding accountancy profession, about the profession’s heritage and also to create awareness about the existence of the “Accountancy Museum of India”, the ICAI has decided to set up prototypes of the Museum at its Regional Offices and Decentralised offices all over India.
6. Direct entry into Intermediate (Integrated Professional Competence) Course:
It was earlier decided by ICAI to exempt Graduates/Post Graduates with specified percentage of marks and Intermediate level Examination passed students of The Cost Accountants of India and The Institute of Company Secretaries of India from passing the Common Proficiency Test (CPT).
Due to different nomenclature of papers in various Universities and all papers not carrying 100 marks, the Institute, in order to remove the hardships faced by students seeking direct entry into Intermediate (Integrated Professional Competence) Course, has decided to cover the following category of students for being eligible to direct entry.
Graduate or Post Graduate in Commerce having secured in aggregate a minimum of 50% of the total marks or its equivalent grade in the examination conducted by any recognized University (including Open University) by studying any 3 papers carrying a minimum of 50 marks in a semester/ year and cumulatively 100 marks or more marks over the entire duration of the course in each paper out of Accounting, Auditing, Mercantile Laws, Corporate Laws, Economics, Management (including Financial Management), Taxation (including Direct Tax Laws and Indirect Tax Laws), Costing, Business Administration or Management Accounting; or similar to the title of these papers with different nomenclatures.
Further, the Institute has decided to approve the subjects, University-wise, as and when the issue of nomenclature arises.
7. Setting up of Additional Reading Rooms:
Considering the remarkable growth of students throughout the country, the ICAI had decided to establish additional Reading Rooms at various places for providing conducive reading environment to students as well as for helping students, particularly of weaker section, or coming from remote areas who lack the resources.
During the recently concluded Council Meeting, the ICAI considered & approved the revised scheme for setting up of additional reading rooms. The branches which are not able to meet the revenue expenditure for running the reading rooms shall be eligible to get the grant from ICAI. It is proposed to set up 227 reading rooms in various cities all across the country.
8. Strengthening ICAI Infrastructure:
Till Feb’13, the ICAI had 128 branches spread out all across the country.
A branch is normally set up by the Institute when there are 150 members in a place within a radius of 50 kms or when there are 100 members in a district.
In the last Council Meeting held in March’13, the ICAI had decided to set up 5 branches, out of these 3 were in the Central Region i.e. at Kishangarh, Chittorgarh, Jhansi and 2 in the Western Region i.e. at Navsari and Satara. With this, the total number of branches of ICAI had gone upto 133.
In the recently concluded Council Meeting, ICAI has further decided formation of 5 more branches i.e. 1 in Central region i.e. at Sikar (Rajasthan), 2 in the Northern Region i.e. at Sirsa (Haryana) & Rewari (Haryana) & 2 in the Western Region i.e. at Nanded (Maharashtra) and Dhule (Maharashtra). With this, the total number of branches have gone up to 138.
The increase in the no. of branches shows the continuous development of the profession with the member’s count growing to over 2 lac & student’s count to more than 11 lac.
9. Disciplinary Cases:
Since Feb, 2013, 18 meetings of the Disciplinary Committee have taken place wherein 83 cases pending under old Disciplinary Mechanism have been heard & concluded. Out of the above, in the recently concluded Council meeting, ICAI considered and disposed off 19 Reports of the Disciplinary Committee and recommended punishment wherever guilt was established. It has also disposed off hearing of 8 cases under Section 21(4) of the Chartered Accountants Act.
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