ICAI expects to finalise int’l networking guidelines for CA firms this fiscal

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) ICAI expects to finalise the international networking guidelines for Indian chartered accountant firms this fiscal, its President Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal said on Monday, as efforts continue to have big domestic CA firms that can compete globally.

Currently, there are no guidelines for international networking of Indian CA firms.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which has more than four lakh members, is also working on ways as part of larger efforts to make the country a global accounting and auditing hub.

Agarwal said at a briefing in the national capital that the institute is working on the international networking guidelines as the target is to make Indian CA firms bigger and global.

With respect to aggregation of CA firms, the institute has charted out some strategies and steps have already been taken in this regard.

For instance, if two CA firms are merging, they were earlier not allowed to demerge after five years of the merger. The time period has been extended to 10 years, Agarwal said.

Also, the institute is making efforts to ease the norms that restrict CAs from advertising their services or soliciting clients.

According to the ICAI President, the institute will finalise the changes and will send them to the governments. To implement the changes, the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 needs to be amended.

Meanwhile, he said ICAI has communicated its reservations to the corporate affairs ministry about changes proposed to certain auditing standards.

The institute and the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) are on different pages regarding the changes proposed by the latter to SA 600 and SA 299.

SA (Standard on Auditing) 600 pertains to the audit of group companies and three other auditing standards while SA 299 relates to joint liability of auditors.