CA Act Amendment Bill: ICAI Prez seeks 'status quo' on disciplinary committee

NEW DELHI: As a Parliamentary panel examines proposed changes to a law governing chartered accountants, ICAI President Debashis Mitra on Tuesday pitched for maintaining the "status quo" on the constitution of the institute's disciplinary committee and asserted that the current system is working well.

The corporate affairs ministry has introduced a bill in Parliament last December whereby changes have been proposed to existing legislation governing the apex institutes of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries.

The Lok Sabha had referred the Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021, to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for scrutiny. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has flagged certain provisions in the bill, including those relating to the disciplinary committee, striking off names of defaulting CA (Chartered Accountant) firms and approval of names of CA firms registered with the institute. Currently, the disciplinary committee has five members -- three ICAI central council members and two government nominees.

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The bill has proposed to include two CAs and three non-CAs. Besides, it has been proposed that the disciplinary committee will be headed by a non-CA. On Tuesday, Mitra, who took over as ICAI President in February, said the institute's request is for the "status quo" with respect to the constitution of the disciplinary committee.

Speaking to reporters, Mitra said that the disciplinary committee is working well. Certain concerns with respect to the proposed coordination committee between the institutes of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries have also been raised by the ICAI. The institute has made its submissions regarding the bill to the Parliamentary panel. "We are fiercely proud of our autonomy," Mitra said. ICAI has nearly 3.5 lakh members and about 7.5 lakh students.