ICAI introduce the Islamic finance in revised syllabus for Chartered Accountants

In a statement to the Indian parliament, minister of corporate affairs inform that the curriculum of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) courses has been recently revised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Besides including the chapters of CSR and GST, chartered accountant institute has also added the Islamic finance as a subject at the final level under the subject of strategic financial management.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the national professional accounting body of India. It the only licensing cum regulating body of the financial audit and accountancy profession in India and provides continuous learning/training to its members through the Continuing Professional Education Committee (CPEC). ICAI is the second largest professional Accounting & Finance body in the world in terms of membership, after American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

ICAI has recently launched the new Chartered Accountancy Course Curriculum according to new challenges in the field of accountancy, specifically after the implementation of goods and services tax (GST). This curriculum was launched by Indian Prime Minister on 1st July 2017 just on the day of GST implementation. He said on the occasion that “I hope this new course will further consolidate the financial skills of new aspirants joining this profession. In the wake of globalization, we have to focus now on developing dynamic systems so that our institutions are able to produce dynamic human resources. In order to remain relevant to the industry, we should design our courses according to the global requirements and benchmarks. Our courses must integrate technological requirements in the field of Accountancy. We should encourage innovation in the Accountant’s Field. We should find ways to innovate Charted Nutral Firms Technology. There is a huge opportunity in the market for new Software which is required in the field of accountancy.”

It is really a good sign that India’s largest statutory body in the field of accountancy has acknowledged the need to educate about the Islamic finance. Islamic finance is now not the new term globally. Its compliance products and services have been already successfully experimented in Muslim and other non-OIC countries.

Hopefully, the introduction of Islamic finance course by ICAI would create an awareness about the need of institutionalization of Islamic finance in India so that large unproductive assets could also be used in mainstream financing.