The Hindu Business Line : You can only lead a horse to water

LEARNING is a continuing process, and continuing learning is proving to be a doubt-ridden process in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Even as the ICAI's members queue up for the continuing professional education (CPE) programmes to earn the required credit hours before March 31, 2004, the Institute watches passively at how its dictum on importance for substance over form is given a go-by.

Thus, at the end of it all, CAs would be registering for the seminar or workshop, pay the required fee, and ensure that the appropriate credit hours are entered in their record. Thereafter, they hit the `escape' button. But then, you can only lead the horses to water, not make them drink.

And when sufficient numbers of horses were yet to be brought to the waterfront, the ICAI extended the last date to meet CPE requirements for calendar year 2003.

"The CPE Directorate has received certain queries from the members at large with a request to provide certain clarifications on matters arising out of the extension of last date vis-à-vis granting CPE Credits on learning hour-to-hour basis for CPE Programmes w.e.f. January 1, 2004 (in accordance with the limited revision of the Statement on CPE)," reads an "important announcement", listing three `issues' and `clarifications'.

First, "Eligibility for CPE Credit for the programmes w.e.f. January 1, 2004, for those members who had not earned the required number of credit for the calendar year 2003: CPE Credit hours will be granted as per revised norms, i.e., learning hour-to-hour basis."

Next, "Treatment of CPE Credit earned by members (who had already met the quota for 2003) by attending CPE Programmes during January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2004: To be reckoned for the CPE requirements for the calendar year 2004." Last, "Treatment of CPE Credit earned by members (who have not completed the quota for 2003) by attending CPE Programmes during January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2004" would be that "the first 6 CPE Credit hours will be reckoned for the year 2003 and the balance, if any, will be reckoned for the year 2004."

This is not meant to remove all misgivings, because "if members are having any doubt in this regard, they may contact the Secretariat of the CPE Committee." Looks like the directorate needs to organise seminars to first educate the members about CPE and its nuances.

It used to be said of Chief Secretaries of a certain State that they would keep their cars idling in the portico, even as they reported for work only to know that they have been shunted out. A similar joke is doing the rounds at CPE venues, where the winner is one who gets his CPE entry at the shortest expense of time. So much for structured learning.

It is good therefore to see an announcement in www.icai.org inviting comments for "unstructured CPE learning activities".

This states: "The CPE Committee of the ICAI is contemplating to recognise unstructured learning activities as continuing professional education activities tentatively with effect from January 1, 2006 (after undergoing due process within the policy framework of the Institute)."

What are these UCLAs? "Reading technical, professional, financial or business literature. It is accepted that general reading of direct and indirect tax, corporate laws press is important and will normally constitute a major part of the CPE undertaken." Remember that credit will only be given for "technical articles", so you can skip the ads. Also, mere subscription to a publication does not constitute CPE, else everybody would produce fake bills. Then, there is "individual home study" — such as, the use of audiotapes, videotapes, correspondence courses, computer-based learning programmes, and so on, where there is no interaction with other individuals and no assessments is provided — related or relevant to the accountancy profession.

Only likely condition is that you should not be sleeping while studying.

Also, watching CNBC or joining CA chat groups may not as such qualify to be CPE unless unstructured learning factors in these before it becomes frozen into a structured regime.

AccountSpeak@thehindu.co.in

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