The Institute of Charted Accountants of India (ICAI) has officially written to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs seeking a Post Graduate (PG) degree status for the CA qualification. Apart from that, ICAI has also sought Graduation (UG) degree status for CA-Intermediate course. ICAI has taken the step of seeking the Ministry’s intervention in accordance with the above-mentioned status for CA and CA-Intermediate courses as per University education system.
As per the official statement released by ICAI, the Association of Indian Universities, i.e. the AIU had recognised Charted Accountancy along with a graduation to be equivalent to a PG degree. Also, CA was approved as a valid academic qualification for seeking admission to Ph.D. programme in Commerce and allied disciplines.
Also Read: - Career Path of a CA (Charted Accountant)
In India, two Indian Institutes of Technology, 3 Indian Institutes of Management and 101 universities recognised CA qualification for admission to their respective Ph.D. courses.
The CA final exam is regarded as one of the toughest examination in the country which is a hard nut to crack in the first attempt, majorly because of its difficulty level. As per statistics and data received of the CA final results for the year 2017 , only 19,879 candidates out of 1,32,007 cleared the exam. The overall pass percentage was just 15%.
On July 31, 2017, ICAI launched the revised syllabus of CA course . It had been more than a decade since ICAI had upgraded the syllabus. The new syllabus has a variety of contemporary topics like Goods and Service Tax (GST), Islamic Finance, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Start-Up Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) etc. Apart from the new additions, ICAI has also removed Value Added Tax (VAT), services tax and exercise duty from the syllabus. The syllabus has been revised after holding consultations and discussions with the experts in the field.