CA Firms cannot take more than 4 concurrent Assignments

The council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, has decided to limit the number of Banks a Chartered Accountant can do Concurrent Audit of to 4. The council in its 342nd Council Meeting decided that 

"The Council decided to fix limit on concurrent audit of banks at 4 audits per member per year. Cooperative banks and RRBs were exempted from the limit. The above limit will come into effect from 1.1.2016."

 

The move was much needed due to there were complaints made by various ICAI members and Bank officials that the quality of Audit has been poor in many cases due to a single firm taking assignments with various banks and then sub-assigning or not performing due to lack of manpower expertise. This limit will be applicable from 01st of January, 2016 and we hope that it would provide equal opportunity to members in practice and would increase the quality of Internal Audit function performed by the members.

The other decisions taken by council members are:

Council passed condolence resolution on the demise of past Council member, CA. H.M. Talati. Council condoled the deaths and devastation in Nepal earthquake and resolved to help ICAN Report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (2014-15) was circulated. Council noted with appreciation that the Parliamentary Committee has desired that the Ministry may ensure that in the process of constituting NFRA, it does not create two parallel jurisdictions governing the same issue. The Report further mentioned that the Parliamentary Committee would like the NFRA to function as an oversight body without any jurisdictional conflict or overlap. It had desired that this aspect may be addressed, when the rules governing NFRA are finalized by the Ministry. Office was directed to place an item of agenda before next Council meeting in regard to grievance of students unable to complete advance ITT due to non-availability of seats/ infrastructural facilities at branches. Office to initiate action against members within the framework of law for sending malicious and maligning emails. Council approved the draft of the proposed Accounting Standard for Local Bodies (ASLB) 31, ‘Intangible Assets’ based on corresponding IPSAS 31 Council approved the draft of the proposed Accounting Standard for Local Bodies (ASLB) on ‘Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting’ corresponding to IPSAS on ‘Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting’ Council approved the draft of the proposed Accounting Standard for Local Bodies (ASLB) 3, ‘Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors’ corresponding to IPSAS 3 on ‘Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors’ Council approved the draft of the proposed Accounting Standard for Local Bodies (ASLB) 19, ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’ corresponding to IPSAS 19, ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’ Council approved the draft Guidance Note on Accounting for Derivative Contracts which will be effective from 1.4.2016. It was decided that members will be encouraged to follow from even earlier period. Council approved the Guidelines for Valuation norms for Intangible Assets under Rule 23 of the LLP Rules, 2009 Council approved the Format of Financial Statements for LLPs, subject to views of the Accounting Standards Board. The Council decided to include PAN and FRN details of members in the ICAI database provided to Income Tax Department based on request received from Income Tax Department (Systems) Council authorized the Examination Committee to determine increase in Examinations fee including examinations for various Post Qualification Courses Council requested the Management Committee to put up draft amendments in Regulation 175 so as to widen the scope of functioning of the Executive Committee Council decided to initiate amendment in the Chartered Accountants Act for redesignating Council Members as “Governing Council Members” The Council considered the Report of Electoral Reforms Group and decided as under: The recommendations which require amendment in the Act, Regulations or Rules be kept in abeyance and will be considered later. Setting up of polling booth in chapters abroad having more than 500 voters, subject to feasibility and permission to be obtained from MCA and MEA/MHA. Ballot papers will include membership no. of candidate along with photograph. Polling Officers will be given clear instructions as to which documents to be verified for identification of voter. Office to try to make arrangement for display through website of votes cast every two hours. Office to host draft list of voters and seek voters to point out errors if any. Office to explore possibility of getting confirmation from postal voters that they have posted their vote. Council disposed off 10 references received from the Quality Review Board containing recommendations to the Council under clause (a) of Section 28B of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. Office was requested to go ahead with expenditure and construction of Centre of Excellence only after policy on Centre of Excellence is put in place. In the meanwhile, Infrastructure Development Committee was requested to deal with demarcation of land and execution of lease deed in relation to land for Centre of Excellence at Ajmer Without going into the facts and merits of the cases of Goa and Latur infrastructure cases put up before it, the Council returned the matter to the Infrastructure Development Committee with a request to deal with the matter in accordance with the Infrastructure Policy. Council approved construction of boundary walls at various locations for proposed Centres of Excellence and at Rohini Land, Delhi, pending finalization of Infrastructure Policy for COE The Council decided to fix limit on concurrent audit of banks at 4 audits per member per year. Cooperative banks and RRBs were exempted from the limit. The above limit will come into effect from 1.1.2016. The Council requested the Group on LLPs to convene a meeting early and collect views of Council members in regard to framing revised Guidelines of Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and MDP. Office was asked to put up cases of firms still in existence, despite having converted to LLP. The Group was also asked to consider including other professionals also for MDP. Council approved various forms and letters for administrative and Procedural compliance for implementation of OCI Scheme Council approved Policy for break in service between termination and re-registration of articles service, whereby break in service between termination and re-registration falling in public holidays/ weekends will be treated as “in service”. The Council authorized the Group on Project Parivartan to take all decisions relating to Project Parivartan and report the same to the Council.