ICAI to train one lakh Accountants on GST in partnership with Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt of India in next two years: Amit A. Apte, National President of ICAI

Hyderabad, February 14, 2019: Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt of India to partner with The Institute of Cost Accountants of India(ICAI) to traine one lakh accountants on GST(Goods and Services Tax) in next two years informed Amit A.Apte, National President of The Institute of Cost Accountants of India while addressing a press conference here in Hyderabad at FTAPCCI on Thursday.

ICAI is a statutory body for the regulation of the profession of Cost Management and Accountancy. It is the second largest Cost & Management Accounting body in the World and the largest in Asia haveing about 75,000 members and 5 lakh students informed Amit.

ICAI will be launching a course in Goods and Services Tax (GST) accounting. It is a Government of India sponsored program. It will be launched in next one month. It will be a 50 hour class room training. 10 GST offices of Government of India will also train them. Neeti Ayog has already approved this progrm informed Amit A. Apte, who addressed the press conference long with his colleagues Dr. PVS Jagan Mohan Rao, President of South Asian Federation of Accountants(SAFA) and Munisekhara Darapaneni, Chairman of Hyderabad Chapter.

Objective of this training program is to make SMEs compliant of GST. The partnership will help assessees for better compliance with the sweeping tax reforms, he added

The move of the government is said to help small companies in a hassle free manner to file their GST returns. According the Government they have 1.3 crore GST assessees enrolled with the authorities. Out of these nearly thirty lakh people are unable to comply with the GST norms. So government wants to intervene to help that if these new accountants are trained, then the compliance may go up and government wants to achieve 100 per cent compliance, he informed

Anyone with a background of commerce and accounting can do the course, All they need to do is apply by paying a nominal fee for the all India leve entrance test. That is all. Once, they are selected Government will fund their training. Otherwise, the cost of the program could be around Rs 5000 per candidate. The details of the curriculum is being worked out and expected to be announced soon.

On our front we initiated discusssion with the Ministry, in pursuance to the same, the Ministry approached NITI Aayog for approval, Apte shared

Large corporates are self equppied and they have best of the best consultants. But, SMEs have problem. These one lakh Accountants who will be trained from all over India on GST in next two years, will help SMEs in compliance of the tax reforms, he added.

Amit was in the city on a day trour. There is a need of to two to three lakh GST Accountants to see that full complaince of GST is met, he added.

speaking about job opportunities to Cost Management Accountans(CMA), he said, there are good career opportuntities. All the trained CMA professionals are obsorbed by the industry. The job offers are on the rise. The recent placement of ICAI students fetched them an annual package of Rs 7.5 lakh to 17.5 lakh he informed.

ICAI has been in forefront in contributing towards the economic growth of the country. The CMAs are instrument for ensuring cost competetiveness in Indian manufacturing companies and the CMA as a professional has strived relentlessly to promote the socio economi development of the country, he added

ICMAI Registered Valuers Organisation (RVO) promoted by the Institute and recognised by the IBBI is expected to conduct educational courses for three different asset classes - Land & Building, Plant & Machinery and Securities or Financial Assets. It has also launched its Educational Courses on Valuation at various locations across the country, Amit Apte informed.

The Institute is organising series of capacity building training programs through different modes including seminars, webinars, workshops and conferences, etc. Although India is well connected to the global economy, to a major extent, we have to identify and nurture domestic strong points on cost competencies to build them into the cost competitiveness of Indian economy. We believe in prioritizing the global practices in a way that it does not have an adverse impact on the domestic economic environment, Amit said.

The Institute has been working continuously to strengthen the cost competitiveness of Indian industry by inculcating cost management focus through propagating best practices in cost management and cost accounting / auditing. The Institute feels very strongly that Resource Optimization should be made necessary in Government establishments covering their programs and schemes by adoption of suitable CMA techniques targeting growth & efficiency and ensuring timely and effective societal welfare. CMA techniques accurately links responsibilities with resource decisions and provide the decision maker transparent and relevant information, Amit added

Dr. PVS Jagan Mohan Rao highlighted how accounting profession development is happening in SAARC countries.