The implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) bill will call for major changes in the chartered accountancy (CA) syllabus. At least two tax papers of the course will see "big changes", the Institute for Chartered Accountants of India has said.

As the GST bill has already been passed by 17 states and is currently awaiting the President's assent, the central government may introduce the uniform taxation regulation by the expected date of April 1, 2017.

ICAI president M Devaraja Reddy said since GST is an indirect tax law, it will affect the syllabi of all subjects related to indirect taxes. "Part II of paper 4 (indirect taxes) of intermediate course and paper 8 (indirect tax laws) of final course will be altered." ICAI president, M Devaraja Reddy, said, "Once GST gets implemented in the country , service tax law, excise law, CST law and VAT laws contained in these papers will be subsumed into GST. However, customs laws will continue in these papers even after implementation of GST because customs duty is not being subsumed in GST."

Reddy said the formal announcement on syllabus change will come after legislation related to GST are implemented. "The methodology for designing the syllabi and the time when the same will be made applicable will be decided by the Council of ICAI. Students will be informed well in advance whenever the new syllabi would be made applicable," he said.

There have been syllabus changes in the past too, and ICAI has worked out solutions to train chartered accountants. "With respect to indirect taxes, one of the most talked about change was in 2012 which witnessed paradigm shift in taxation of services based on the negative list from positive list. Then too, ICAI took it upon itself to update the members with the amendments in the law by thoroughly updating its study materials, publications sending regular indirect tax updates, conducting nationwide awareness seminars, programmes, workshops, organising live webcasts and providing a comprehensive training vide the certificate courses," Reddy said.

Coaching institutes expressed the same view too."It will be a challenge for us. First, teachers will have to learn the law. Second, they will then teach the law, both practically and academically, which be tough," said V Sreevasthson, a tax laws teachers with Bhartwaj Institute in Chennai. He said that since GST will eliminate most indirect tax laws, it is tough to predict the kind of questions that the students will ask them.#CASANSAAR (Times of India)