CAs, CSs, CWAs may have unified institute

22 Dec 1999

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Three statutorily constituted professional institutes in the country governing the entire accounting, auditing and company law practices are planning to come together and function as a unified entity. The three -- the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India -- have set up a coordination committee to oversee this unification process. The committee will essentially make a representation to the government to amend the statutes and provide legal sanctity for the unified entity.

The government has already been informed about the plan. Since the institutes have their own rules and regulations and codes of conduct, and since they have come into existence under different acts of Parliament, the government will have to amend the existing law in this regard.

A proposal to allow multi-disciplinary practice is with the government. That would mean that members affiliated to the three institutes will be able to form partnerships and practise under one common entity. While this is agreed upon, the ministry of law, justice and company affairs will have to initiate legislative changes for the plan to become reality.

The coordination committee comprises of the presidents and selected council members of the three institutes. The committee will first apprise the councils of the three institutes of the need to bring in a unified entity. Later, each institute will outline in a paper the modalities for such a merger, and the contents of these three papers in a consolidated form will be presented to the government by end-April 2000.

While multi-disciplinary practice is an accepted norm in several countries, the concept of a unified body to control the three branches is something new. The coordination committee on its own has taken certain initiatives which do not need the government's approval. It has decided to bring together facilities like libraries and offer the publications of each institute to the members of the other institutes at concessional rates. Professional updation programmes will be conducted on common platforms. There will be attempts to have a common syllabus.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has nearly 90,000 members, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India some 9,000 associate members and 3,300 fellow members. The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India has a membership that is slightly lower than that of the Institute of Company Secretaries.

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