Kind attention of the members pursuing Post Qualification Course on Diploma in Insurance and Risk Management (DIRM) who have yet to pass Eligibility Test (ET) Papers is invited towards the last date for submission of ET Papers in order to become eligible to appear in the DIRM Technical Examination to be held in May 2010 (subject to fulfillment of other conditions in this regard) is 31st December, 2009. The soft copy of the ET Question Papers are hosted at our website at the hyperlink http://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=3650 The ET papers should be posted in a manner so as to reach the following address on or before 31st December, 2009.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has revised its internal audit standards to strengthen internal audit practices in the country. The current revision, approved by the ICAI council last week, addresses issues such as effects of laws and regulations in conducting internal audit, responsibility of management for compliance with laws and regulations, responsibility of internal auditor and internal audit procedures.

The nation’s accounting standard-setting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), has changed some rules to allow both new and serving officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) to acquire the qualification of a chartered accountant (CA).

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has registered a formal complaint with the accounting regulator – the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) – against the government-appointe d auditor for claiming that its flagship company, Reliance Communications (RCom), had allegedly under-reported revenues and evaded licence fees during 2006-08.

State Bank of India, having its Corporate Centre at Mumbai is India’s leading Public Sector Bank having all India presence, branch network of over 12000 branches is interested in engaging an Audit firm of repute and proven track record to carry out the concurrent audit of its Treasury Operations on an on going basis, initially for a period of 6 months, subject to extension.

The Institute compiles data of firms as on 1st January every year based on the particulars as provided by the firms duly confirmed/updated/modified. The exercise for compilation of the data of the firms as on 1st January, 2010 is being undertaken.

CA. Uttam Prakash Agarwal, President, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), has been awarded with the honorary membership of the Certified Practising Accountant of Australia by Prof. Richard Petty, President, CPA Australia Ltd. CPA Australia is one of the largest accounting bodies in Australia. CA. Uttam Prakash Agarwal was bestowed with this honor during his visit to Washington D.C. to attend the Board Meeting of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession to protect the public interest by encouraging high quality practices by the world’s accountants) .

The mammoth fraud at IT major Satyam, involving over Rs 14,000 crore as per CBI, proved to be the most brazen swindling act, forcing the government to re-write corporate governance rules during 2009 and tighten the norms for chartered accountants. While the investigating agencies had a tough time going through voluminous documents to get to the extent of the scam and uncover the modus-operandi of the fraud, disclosed by the company’s founder and then chief B Ramalinga Raju himself in January, it could still take quite some time for the courts to punish the guilty.

services provided by Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants and Company Secretaries as well as by engineering and management consultants are presently charged to Service Tax. Although there is a school of thought that legal consultants do not provide any service to their client, I hold my distinguished predecessor in high esteem and disagree! As such, I propose to extend Service Tax on advice, consultancy or technical assistance provided in the field of law. This tax would not be applicable in case the service provider or the service receiver is an individual.”

The corporate affairs ministry and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) are confident of meeting the April 2011 deadline to shift to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). But industry says a complete transition from Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to IFRS may take time.