Chart IT route, CAs told

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 29. ``Specialise or perish'' is the message that senior professionals as also policymakers today sought to convey to the one-lakh-strong community of chartered accountants in the country looking to chart their course in the new millennium.

It is not just use of information technology (IT) as a prerequisite for successful practice in a globalising economy but also the need for shunning the decades-old dependence on statutory work by the ``one-qualification profession'' that came to be highlighted, as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) wound up its two-year-long golden jubilee celebrations with a conference devoted to the theme ``auditing in the new millennium''.

The speakers emphasised that specialisation from among a long menu, including taxation laws of specific countries, financial management, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property rights should be resorted to by professionals aspiring for success, while the Government should facilitate changes in laws, rules and syllabi. Accountants could even design financial e-commerce portals, taking care to accept only consultancy fee and not a share in profits to comply with existing regulations, the conference was told.

The Tamil Nadu Minister for Education, Mr. K. Anbazhagan, who inaugurated the conference, set the tone by emphasising that the CA qualification could henceforth be considered only a prerequisite for entry into the profession where those with a ``flair for technology'' would score over colleagues.

Mr. N. Rangachary, Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), asked accountants to prepare themselves for ``cross-border movement'' of professionals and ``acceptance of reciprocal arrangements''. (Both these issues are under discussion under the auspices of the WTO in Geneva).

Warning the leadership of the institute that ``frustration'' was spreading among younger members of the profession over insufficient scope for advancement and excellence, Mr. Rangachary said chartered accountants would have no alternative to adoption of international accounting standards. He said the ICAI should have a ``relook'' at its regulations and consider combined practice by professionals of various disciplines. Mr. Rahul Roy, former president, ICAI, said while on the one hand ``tectonic changes'' had been brought about in the world by the Internet revolution, on the other professionals in India carrying the ``baggage of the past'' were showing ``withdrawal symptoms'' as a result of withdrawal of statutory support.

They should shed diffidence and look for opportunities in the knowledge-led and globalised environment. They should try to emulate multinational professional firms by setting up ``boutique shops'' offering specialised services in narrow fields allied to accountancy and ``department stores'' offering multidisciplinary services under a single roof.

Mr. Roy said the profession would not be able to develop ``branding'' with a single qualification for people with varying talents, and with outdated regulations that barred advertising and soliciting. Such laws violated the consumer's right to know the quality of the product/service he was buying.

Mr. Y. H. Malegam, senior professional who headed several committees appointed by the Securities and Exchange of India, clarified that Indian CAs were not barred from certifying compliance with the U.S. GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) for the satisfaction of customers, but they could not do so for submission of the accounts to any regulatory authority. Even in the U.S., only those CPAs (certified public accountants) who had been designated SEC partners could issue such certification.

Mr. Balaji Swaminathan highlighted major areas of difference between Indian and U.S. GAAP, like consolidation of accounts, revenue recognition, valuation of intangibles and foreign currency transactions. Absence of peer review and common practice by various professionals in India was a contentious issue in multilateral negotiations, he said.

Mr. G. Sitharaman, President, ICAI, said the accounting system for local bodies evolved by the institute at the instance of the World Bank had recently been accepted by the State, which was also set to give a role for CAs in the cooperative sector.

Mr. Anbazhagan released a First Day Cover brought out by the Department of Posts on the occasion and the second volume of the history of chartered accountancy in India.

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