The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has proposed changes in syllabus for the common proficiency test (CPT) - the first of the three CA examinations - of the Chartered Accountants course and introduce English proficiency test and general economics tests, said Babu Abraham Kallivayalil, the Chairman of Continuous Professional Education Committee of ICAI.

Speaking at the national conference of the ICAI here on Friday, Mr. Kallivayalil said that as the chartered accountants are in demand world over, the ICAI has found absence of reasonable-level of English proficiency among the toppers in the CA course. “Let alone speaking skills,” he said. There was also lack of knowledge about intricacies of budget among the students.

The ICAI, he said, has also proposed to rename the CPT as foundation course where there will be four question papers of 100 marks each. One of these four papers will be on English proficiency, General Economics and Logic. “We will be testing grammar, comprehension and general knowledge of economics. Unlike the present objective type, this paper will be descriptive,” Mr. Kallivayalil said. Similarly the accountancy paper of 100 marks will also be descriptive in nature.

Mr. Kallivayalil said changes have been proposed in syllabus for the Intermediate and Final examination of the CA course. In these CA examinations, the ICAI will be testing student’s conceptual knowledge. There will be more of case studies.

Mr. Kallivayalil said the central council of the ICAI has approved changes in the syllabus and has sent it to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for approval. “If the Ministry approves changed syllabus, the same will be placed for public comments for 45 days and then it will be gazetted.” Mr. Kallivayalil said the first foundation course examination with changed syllabus would be in November 2016. (The Hindu)