ICAI to launch new CA curriculum, focus on technology, GST, industrial training

NEW DELHI: Soon after assuming charge as the new chairman of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Debashis Mitra, announced that the institute is planning to revise the CA curriculum, on Tuesday.

Breaking from tradition, the CA curriculum will be revised after a period of five years instead of 10. Mitra said that ICAI will revise the curriculum based on government suggestions and later put it for public suggestions for a period of 45 days. The suggestions from top educationists and experts will then be incorporated. The finalised curriculum will be introduced this year, Mitra said.

According to Mitra, the curriculum needs revision because of significant changes like Goods and Service Tax and to meet the industry’s demands. “The first draft of the curriculum has already been approved by the council. There is a lot of emphasis on technology in the curriculum. We are talking about sustainable reporting which was not there in earlier times,” said Mitra.

To widen its reach, ICAI has decided to extend a 75 percent concession in registration course fee for all levels of CA courses to the students registering from Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and eight North-East states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Andaman and Nicobar Islands till March 31, 2025.

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The complete chartered accountancy training involves completing the modules and writing the CA Foundation, CA Intermediate and CA Final exams. The CA Foundation exam 2022 is in May.

Industrial Training

ICAI is also planning to launch a “New Scheme for Education and Training”, focussing on the development of higher-order skills of application, analysis and interpretation. A special feature of the new scheme would be the mandatory multi-disciplinary case study at the final level, which would help students integrate professional knowledge in different subject areas, analyse and apply such knowledge in problem-solving.

Emphasizing on application-based learning Mitra said, “We are going to see how much of an open book system we can have and ask case study-based questions. The push is towards application of mind and knowing the latest that is happening in the field,” he explained. The scheme also intends to focus more on practical training and will also offer self-paced online modules, where working students can learn and qualify at their own pace.

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Mitra also stressed on building the communication skills of the students. “We are starting general management and communication skills classes. So that students know how to communicate well and put forward their view point clearly. We are trying to establish more centres of excellence,” he said. The centre of excellence of ICAI is dedicated to provide intensive industrial training to Chartered Accountants. ICAI’s new curriculum will also increase the period of industrial training to 18 months.