The Hindu Business Line : ICAI confident of retaining autonomy

WITH the Company Affairs Minister, Mr Prem Chand Gupta, hinting that the professional Bills would be taken up for approval of Parliament in the monsoon session, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is confident that its concerns on `autonomy' would be addressed.

The contention of ICAI has been that the certain provisions in the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill 2003, seeks to dilute the autonomy of the Central Council while giving larger powers to the Central Government. "We are confident that most of the issues raised by us on the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill would be positively tackled," the ICAI President, Mr Kamlesh Vikamsey, said.

When asked whether he expects the Institute's concerns on autonomy would also be dealt with in their favour, the ICAI President expressed confidence that the autonomy of the Institute would remain intact.

Besides the issue of larger Government representation in the Central Council, the other issues in the Amendment Bill that raised concerns includes the move to empower the Central Government to dissolve the Council in certain circumstances.

The Central Government is looking to empower itself to dissolve the Council if the Institute did not comply with its directions.

The Bill also proposes to increase the strength of the Council from the existing 30 to 40, with 30 elected from within the CA community and the rest 10 would be nominees by the Centre. Currently, the Council has strength of 30 members including six Government nominees and the remaining elected members from the CA fraternity.

Meanwhile, the ICAI President felt that the JJ Irani Committee's recommendation on auditor remuneration was not materially different from the existing practice. He, however, highlighted that shareholders may not be allowed to delegate the task of fixing the remuneration to the Board of Directors if Irani panel recommendations are accepted.

The Irani panel has suggested that the remuneration of auditors should be subject to decision by shareholders and that the provisions in the existing law provided a suitable framework for the purpose. However, the Committee felt that the basic remuneration to be termed as, Audit Fee, should be distinguished from reimbursement of expenses. It has suggested that reimbursement of expenses to auditors should not form part of remuneration but should be disclosed in the financial statements along with auditors fees.

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