Parliament approves accountancy bill

The parliament approved a bill to revamp the functioning of the institutes of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries. Rajya Sabha passed the Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2022 after negating all amendments moved by the Opposition.

The three institutes are the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Institute of Cost Accountants of India (formerly known as ICWAI), and Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).

The bill amends the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959, and the Company Secretaries Act, 1980. Among other things, the bill provides for the setting up of a coordination committee headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also the minister for corporate affairs, said since India has witnessed rapid changes in the way the economy is being profiled, the sanctity of the audited financial statement, which is where the role of CAs come into play. has got to be maintained and given its due position.

She said, “This (Bill) is with the intention of making the three institutions a lot more transparent in their disciplinary matters, and raise the quality of the disciplinary processes.” The minister said the functioning of the three audit/accounting institutes — ICAI, ICSI and ICWAI — would continue to be governed by the respective three Acts. These bodies would also continue to have the authority for qualifying and licensing of people and regulation of their conduct as was done before, she said.

The Bill proposes to include two CAs and three non-CAs. Besides, it has been proposed that the disciplinary committee will be headed by a non-CA. The Congress, TMC, DMK, CPI (M) and YSRCP opposed the bill, citing “infirmities” and alleging that it was a blatant attack on professional autonomy.