ICAI Proposes Higher Minimum Stipend for Articled Assistants

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued a draft notification proposing the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 to amend Regulation 48 of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988 relating to the minimum monthly stipend payable to articled assistants. The draft has been published for public consultation under Section 30(3) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, and stakeholders may submit objections or suggestions within thirty days from the publication of the draft in the Gazette of India. The proposed amendment revises stipend rates based on the population of the city or town where the articled assistant is serving. During the first year of training, the minimum stipend is proposed at Rs.5,000, Rs.4,000, and Rs.3,000 for specified population categories, increasing to Rs.6,000, Rs.5,000, and Rs.4,000 respectively during the second year. The draft also protects stipend rates applicable to candidates registered under the pre-2023 three-year articleship framework until the earlier regulations cease to apply.

THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, 25th June, 2026

F. NO. 1-CA(7)/243/2026.— The following draft of Regulations to further amend the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988, which the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India proposes to make, is hereby published, as required by sub-section (3) of section 30 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949) for the information of all stakeholders likely to be affected thereby; and notice is hereby given that the said draft regulation shall be taken into consideration after the expiry of a period of thirty days from the date on which the copies of the Gazette of India, in which these draft regulations are published, are made available to the public;

Any person desiring to make any objection or suggestion in respect of the said draft Regulations, may forward the same to the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India within the period so specified addressed to the Secretary, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, ICAI Bhawan, Indraprastha Marg, New Delhi – 110 002;

Any objection or suggestion which may be received from any person with respect to the said draft Regulations before the expiry of the period so specified shall be taken into consideration by the Council.

Draft Regulations

(1) These regulations may be called the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Regulations, 2026.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette.

2.  In the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988, –

(a) In Regulation 48, in sub-regulation (1),

(i)  For the Table, the following Table shall be substituted, namely,-

“Table

(ii) After Table, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely,-

“Provided that a candidate who was registered as an articled assistant for a period of three years, on or before the commencement of the Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Regulations, 2023, shall be paid by the principal, a minimum monthly stipend, at the rates specified under this regulation which were in force prior to their amendment.”

(DR.) JAI KUMAR BATRA, Secy.
[ADVT.-III/4/Exty./189/2026-27]

Note: The principal regulations were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, dated the 1^st June, 1988 vide Notification number 1-CA(7)/134/88 dated 1^st June, 1988 and last amended videNotification No. 1-CA(7)/201/2023 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary dated 21^st June, 2023.