Tax audits as core expertise of CAs must be maintained, says ICAI President

ICAI President Charanjot Singh Nanda highlights importance of tax audits, AI in accounting, and work-life balance for CAs.

President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Charanjot Singh Nanda, in an interaction with journalists on Wednesday said tax audits are among the core expertise of chartered accountants and emphasised about maintaining their forte. This is in context of company secretaries’ body the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) recently seeking inclusion of company secretaries into the definition of ‘accountant’ into the proposed new Income Tax Bill, 2025. Mr. Singh apprised the decision on the way forward would be taken by the coordination committee of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that has members of the concerned sister institutes as its members.  

Other than this, the ICAI President emphasised the potential supplementing role of artificial intelligence in accounting practices and about ensuring compliance to environment, social and governance (ESG) standards.  

In response to a question, Mr. Singh emphasised that predominantly audit work is undertaken by CAs. “Since the day we start off, we study accounting,” he stated, adding, “Audit is a very serious business and can be done only by people who have been doing so.” The ICAI President elaborated his notion pointing to observations made by the Delhi High Court (Sept 2023; Ruchir Agrawal vs Public Enterprises Selection Board) and the Supreme Court (May 2024; Shaji Poulose v. Institute of Chartered Accountants of India). In the former, Mr. Singh noted about the bench having observed that CAs are responsible for, among other things, “undertaking financial audits, providing financial advice, liaising with clients, maintain accounting records and prepare accounts information.”  

According to Mr. Singh, there is “full confidence” in artificial intelligence essaying a complimenting role to the accounting community. In a larger context, he mentioned that AI would not displace rather “empower to perform better”. More importantly, he envisaged about CAs themselves taking up the task of data validation. Pointing to the essentiality of providing the right data and learning to such AI modules, he held, “We are very keen that all such information that comes out has to be checked and validated so that output is also correct.”  

Separately, as an example on the efficient use of AI, Mr. Singh explained that their CA GPT module could potentially be utilised to efficiently seek historical data about a certain holding company or their CSR expenditure for further uses.  

On the aspect of relevant skilling and re-skilling, the ICAI President told The Hindu that more than 3,000 CAs have been trained in the paradigm in the past twelve months. 

The ICAI President explained that auditors engaging in specific data extraction or parameters ensures that the data is coming from the correct places and following the correct path. He added that the data must be led with documents and weigh with relevant checks and balances.