CAs have greater role to play in development : CM

Kochi, Aug 27 (UNI) The Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today said the Chartered Accountants (CAs) have a pivotal role to play in the development of the state and urged the accounting fraternity to be alert of the evasions and malpractices in tax collections.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the one-day All India CPE Seminar organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), he said there was a huge revenue deficit in the state because of the gap between the income and expenditure, and this could be bridged, if the CAs kept a tab of the tax evasions and malpractices in tax collections.

Mr Achuthanandan said the CAs could help the government in increasing the income by plugging the tax evasion.

As most of the development projects of the state were funded through tax revenue, the CAs had a major role to play in the growth of the state, he added.

The President of the ICAI T N Manoharan said the Institute had formed a specialised committee to frame accounting standards for the local bodies. The recommendations of the committee would be forwarded to the Union Urban Ministry for the requisite statutory compliance, he added.

Mr Manoharan said the ICAI was also a part of the government accounting reforms to tranform the government accounting from cash basis to accrual basis. The road map of the reforms would be finalised in the near future, he added.

He said in a bid to globalise the ICAI curriculum, the Institute had recently signed a MoU with the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) in the UAE to conceptualise and devise an international curriculum in accountancy, integrating local needs, keeping in mind various requirements of different levels of accountancy and audit professionals.

He said the ICAI had earlier assisted the formation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal in Nepal. The ICAI has also helped the accounting bodies in Sri Lanka and Nepal in launching the post-qualification course on Information Systems Audit, he added.

The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan, who is also a Chartered Accountant, said the CAs should be part of the growth of the Indian economy and take up the challenges of the changing business environment.

Mr Khan said the CAs should also be part of the budgetary and expenditure planning of the government.

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