Lockdown period to be included in the Articleship training, says ICAI

NEW DELHI: The Institute of Chartered Accountancy in India through an official notification has stated that the candidates who are already registered and undergoing articled training, the period of absence arising out of said lockdown due to COVID -19 pandemic shall not becounted for the purposes of deduction of any leaves. This means that the lockdown which has been currently imposed shall be counted as being on articleship training.

The Institute said that it has been closely watching the current situation that has been creating chaos in the whole of the country. ICAI also stated that they understand that the lockout has resulted in closure of offices and bare minimum articleship training work being made feasible through online means.

What does the announcement mean?

Students who are currently completing their articleship and are scheduled to appear for the May 2020 and the subsequent sessions of CA Final need to worry or count this period as a loss of time. The lockdown period will be counted as the Articleship and no leaves will be deducted. Given that a lot of students have already registered for the May 2020 session before the outbreak of the pandemic and no information from ICAI regarding postponement of the exam, this statement comes as a huge relief for all the candidates.

Also, to further ease out situation at both the ends matters related to timing and manner of payment of stipend in the intervening period arising out of the lockdown ,may be mutually decided between the principal and the article assistant.

Will the CA May 2020 session be Postponed?

Earlier, ICAI has addressed the growing speculations of the postponed of the May 2020 session and announced on its website that “ Queries are being received from the students about dates/ possible postponement of conduct of May 2020 ICAI examinations. However, at the current juncture the situation arising out of impact of COVID 19 is far from clear and the exact situation may be known in next few days’ time only.”