New ICAI president says emphasis on blending new age thinking with traditional approach

New Delhi [India], April 21 : The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) new Chief, ket Sunil Talati will focus on enhancing audit quality mechsms, benchmarking the global best practices in sustainability reporting requirements and assurance standards and actively participating in G20 endeavours with the Government of India.

CA. ket Sunil Talati and CA. Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal were elected as the new president and vice president of ICAI with effect from February 12 this year. With more than 3.75 lakh members and over 7.80 lakh students, ICAI is the world's second-largest accounting body.

Through its 5 regional councils, 168 branches, 45 overseas chapters and 33 representative offices, the institute is taking forward its agenda of inclusive growth and continues to add glory to the profession.

Addressing the media on Thursday about the important milestone, ket Sunil Talati said, "Taking forward India's economic growth story, the ICAI has become a prime partner with B20 dialogue. The partnership of ICAI with B20 as a Prime Partner reflects its commitment to support the Government in making India a Vishwaguru."

"The Regulatory framework of ICAI is an intricate system on which the pious, glorious and respectful structure of one of the largest accounting bodies in the world stands. ICAI vigorously and constructively endeavour to make its regulatory and disciplinary mechsms more robust and responsive together with its Disciplinary Directorate, Financial Reporting Review Board, Peer Review Board, Taxation Audits Quality Review Board, and Centre for Audit Quality," he added.

While talking about disciplinary cases, he shared, "ICAI has a zero-tolerance policy against any disciplinary case. In a few of the cases, we have removed members from the register of members for life. We are here to do the best for the profession and we have kept all the possible mechsms in place to tackle such cases."

"The total cases registered under the new DC mechsm from 2007 till March 31, 2023, are 6766, out of which 4249 cases have been concluded i.e. on 62.80 per cent of the cases, ICAI has already taken decision. The balance cases are either at the Prima Facie stage or at the hearing stage before the Board of Discipline / Disciplinary Committee. In the Council year 2022-23, a total of 112 Meetings were held of the Board of Discipline and Disciplinary Committee, where hearings were concluded in 132 cases and punishments were awarded in 91 cases."

Talking further on this he said, "ICAI had conceptualized and developed an innovative concept of Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) under which a unique number is now generated for every document certified/attested by a Chartered Accountant in practice and registered with the UDIN portal. As on April 12, 2023, around 4.89 Cr UDINs have been generated and 1.38 lakh Members have registered themselves on UDIN Portal."

CA. Talati said, "The institute has recently developed and released the "Guidance Note on Audit of Banks 2023" edition, which provides detailed guidance to auditors conducting audits of banks and bank branches."

"Also, the Institute developed and released the "Implementation Guide on Reporting under Rule 11(g) of the Compes (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014" (Implementation Guide on Audit Trail) that provides detailed guidance on various aspects of this new reporting requirement introduced by Rule 11(g) of the Compes (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014," he added.

ICAI has always been active in helping Government in its various initiatives and other Countries to promote the Chartered Accountancy profession and implement various concepts that are useful in the functioning of Accountancy Institutes.

The ICAI President said, "The Central Bureau of Communication (CBC), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India had approached ICAI to place systematic reliance on UDIN to assess the veracity of the information certified by Chartered Accountants in the prescribed format for the empanelment of the news agencies based on circulation and rates. It has been decided to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICAI and CBC providing details inter alia on the manner of sharing of data, their frequency, the structure of data and the commitments of both orgzations."

"The Governing Board of the National Board of Accountants and Auditors (NBAA), Tanza has approved the introduction of the UDIN system in Tanza. A request has been received from NBAA to share the step-by-step process for implementing the UDIN, as also to share ICAI's experience and support for implementing UDIN in Tanza," he added.

He further said, "ICAI is the official Sponsor of the 7th Africa Congress of Accountants (ACOA) scheduled from May 15-18, 2023 on the theme "Structural Transformation and Growth of African Economies", in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. The Congress will witness the presence of more than 2,000 delegates from 54 African countries around the world."

CA. Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal while addressing the media shared the details about the 57th Campus Placement Programme being orgzed by the Institute for the newly qualified CAs who passed the CA final examination in November 2022.

He said, "To connect and bring together the Newly Qualified Chartered Accountants (NQCAs) and the recruiters on a common platform, the scheme of campus interviews was introduced by ICAI to provide prospective employers and the young members an opportunity to interact and explore the possibility of taking up employment in various orgzations."