Parliamentary Panel prefers outside chair for ICAI-ICSI-ICoAI panel

The parliamentary standing committee on finance has ignored the plea of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) that a coordination committee for the development and harmony of the three professions of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries, chaired by secretary of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, will hamper the decision making authority of the councils of the respective institutes.

The parliamentary panel has favoured the establishment of such a coordination committee, though it said that it should be headed by an eminent business, finance or industry personality who is not a member of any of the three statutory institutes that regulates these professions. The corporate affairs secretary should be a member of the coordination committee, it suggested.

The panel’s observations came after it looked into “The Chartered Accountants, The Cost and Work Accountants and The Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2021”, referred to it on December 22, 2021 for examination and comments.

The other two institutions — The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICoAI) and the Institute of Companies Secretaries of India (ICSI) — had raised no objection to the government proposal in for a coordination committee in the Bill. The presidents, vice-presidents and secretaries of all three institutes have been proposed as the members of the coordination committee.

The panel, headed by BJP leader Jayant Sinha, said the chairman of the committee can be nominated by the government from a panel of eminent persons prepared and provided by the three councils.

“The coordination committee may act as an apex body for harmonious regulation, effective professional development, and objective disciplinary oversight of the three institutes, particularly keeping in view the fast emerging prospect of multi-disciplinary firms and the fact that the three professional institutes together constitute the corporate governance and financial oversight framework across different sectors of economy”, the parliamentary panel report said. It wanted the committee to be named as ‘governance committee’ to reflect its broader mandate of harmonious regulation, effective development and disciplinary oversight of the three institutes.

The ICAI’s objection to the provision in the Bill to appoint a non chartered accountant as the head of the disciplinary committee of the institute was also ignored by the parliamentary panel.

The report on the Bill was submitted to the Parliament on March 23.