After the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India in July this year, the demand for Chartered Accountants (CAs) well-versed in the new tax regime has been on a global rise, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) revealed. GST or similar tax regimes are now applicable in nearly 164 countries, including India.

After GST's implementation, the ICAI changed its syllabus and trained the existing CAs to suit the new tax regime. According to officials, since July till now, 500 CAs have already migrated to Dubai for jobs and at least two a month have been going abroad to join international firms.

"The reason for this is that Indian CAs are well-versed in tax regime as they have to go through many levels of examinations. With the knowledge of GST, which is an international tax law, they have become best of the lot. If they want to practice abroad, they would already be more qualified than those in other countries. Their syllabus is much more complex with different kinds of tax laws but GST is simpler, so they have to concentrate their energy on just one thing," a senior ICAI official said. 

Currently, there are more than 20,000 ICAI qualified CAs and the number is expected to rise further in future. "We cannot tell as to how much this number will rise, but the demand for Indian CAs abroad has definitely been on a rise after the implementation of GST," the official added. ICAI is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for regulating the profession of Chartered Accountancy.

The new curriculum for CAs, which is mandatory for the next batch, will kick in from the 2018 academic session. For the existing students, the new syllabus is optional and most of the students have opted for it.

Meanwhile, the number of women CAs has also increased from 8 per cent in the last decade to 22 per cent now, and is expected to go up to 33 per cent in the next 3 years. #casansaar (Source DNA India)