NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2022 with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserting that it will not impact the autonomy of these bodies.
Lok Sabha on March 30 had cleared this bill. The bill was passed in the backdrop of rising number of disciplinary cases against the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the Institute of Cost Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).
As per the provisions of the new bill, the Government will appoint non-members as the presiding officer of the disciplinary committees of the respective institutes. However, it is to be noted that these appointments would be made on the basis of the recommendations given by the Council of these three bodies.
“The objective is to bring all the three acts at par without affecting the autonomy which they enjoy…In last eight years, in supporting all the ecosystem for business and start-ups. Stand-Up India and Start-Up India show that the companies are eager to register themselves as LLPs because of which the new environment is coming in. Now we see that requirement for regulating them also needs to be robust,” Sitharaman said in Rajya Sabha.
“No change at all in the composition of the Council responsible for the management of the affairs of the institutes…In the proposed amendment, the council shall continue to constitute these bodies as per the existing practice. Government will not constitute them. There will also be no change in the number of members of these bodies,” Sitharaman added.