MYSORE: Although more than 7,500 persons qualify as Chartered Accountants every year, there is an acute shortage of accounting professionals in the country, T.N. Manoharan, president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), has said.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Mysore branch of South India Regional Council of ICAI here on Saturday. "There is an acute shortage of accounting professionals in India as well in the rest of the world", he said.

In 2005, 7,455 newly qualified persons joined the profession and only about 17 per cent of them obtained Certificate of Practice. The remaining 83 per cent opted for employment.

During campus interviews held recently, freshers had been able to command a salary in the range of Rs. 4 lakh to Rs. 6 lakh an annum. While the maximum salary was Rs. 12 lakh an annum, the minimum was Rs. 2 lakh, he said.

During campus interviews held in February-March 2006, 1,144 candidates were absorbed by 102 companies, including Progeon, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arm of Infosys, Tata Sons, Reliance, and ICICI Lombard. BPO companies had been leading the chart in offering the maximum number of jobs to chartered accountants. As many as 334 chartered accountants were absorbed by BPOs. Information Technology companies accounted for recruitment of 125 chartered accountants during campus interviews.

Mr. Manoharan said that chartered accountancy course students had performed well during the examinations, as was evident in the results declared in July 2006.

Mr. Manoharan said that ICAI had submitted a plan for the country's economic reforms, "Mission 2006."

"A lot can be achieved if the skills of the 1,20,000 chartered accountants in the country were channelised in the right direction by the Government," he said.

At present, government accounting is carried out on cash basis. The Government has constituted the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB) with a view to transforming government accounting from cash to accrual system of accounting. The ICAI, which is represented on the GASAB, is playing a crucial role in preparing an operational framework for implementation of accrual accounting in Government, he said.

Commiittee

The ICAI had constituted an independent committee on accounting standards for local bodies (CASLB).

The committee had finalised the draft preface to the Statements on Accounting Standards for Local Bodies, he said. Chartered Accountant and columnist S. Gurumurthy spoke on "Role of CAs in the current economic scenario."

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