Finance Minister to Introduce CA Amendment Bill on Friday, 23 Dec

· Govt Nominee Discipline CAs

Bill expected to strengthen the disciplinary mechanism of three professional institutes of Chartered Accountants, Company Secretary and Cost Accountants.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to Friday introduce a Bill in Lok Sabha to strengthen the disciplinary mechanism on chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries.

The Bill -- The Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2021--has been listed in the revised list of business in Lok Sabha for the introduction on Friday, sources said.

In the wake of several high profile audit failures and the recent blowout of the number of non-banking finance companies such as IL&FS and DHFL, pressure has been mounting on the government to revamp the disciplinary mechanism and improve the functioning of the three professional institutes as regards their disciplinary action against erring members.

A few years back, the government had created National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) as the sole independent regulator for auditors of listed and large unlisted entities. This had led to the dilution of CA Institute’s role regarding it's oversight of its members.

Now, the buzz in the corridors of power is that the upcoming Bill may alter the composition of the Disciplinary Committee to give more powers to the government nominee, such as chairing the committee, and having a larger say in its functioning. It may be recalled that this proposed Bill is one of the 26 Bills that the Government had listed as part of its agenda for introduction in the winter session of Parliament. The Winter Session is slated to end on December 23,