New Delhi, April 15: Part-time chartered accountants (CAs) are on their way out. Multi-disciplinary CA firms are in.

The council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has recently taken a decision to restrict part-time practice by its members. It has resolved that from April 1 next year, the all-important certificate of practice (COP) will not be provided or issued to those members who hold any other profession other than that of full-time practising as a CA.

This is to ensure the standard of work being put out by the practising CAs, all of whom have to obtain a COP from the professional regulatory body of ICAI.

ICAI president Sunil Goyal has said the modalities to restrict the part-time work of the CA professionals are being worked out.

The winds of change in the profession seems to be imminent now even as the demands to stop part-time CAs and start multi-disciplinary firms for CA professionals have been long-standing demands in the corporate sector as well as within the CA fraternity.

Explaining the implications of the move, . D. Gupta, former president of ICAI and a practising CA professional, said, “Earlier, qualified CAs would work as executives or finance officers in companies, retain their COP and practice part-time as a CA professional for assignments. That provision of part time CA practice is being stopped.”

There have been studies showing that quality of work by CAs who do part time work suffer. Moreover, integrity of the auditing is also in question, as the company for whom the CA is working as an executive and the one where he is acting as a CA, may be having links or nexus, said Gupta.

A large number of CAs working in companies hold COPs so far. However, not all of them were working as part-timers, though some of those who were doing were bringing a bad name to the profession, he said. However, even as part-time CA practice has been restricted, an exception has been made to those who go in for teaching assignments.

Full-time CAs typically working with a CA firm or as an independent CA will be able to take up teaching assignments, which has been capped at 25 hours in a week, for a recognised institution. Further consultancy service has also been permitted. It is basically the attest function for which no room has been left for a part-time work, said Gupta.

Multi-disciplinary firms where CAs can work in alliance with other professionals like cost accountants and company secretaries have been a long-standing demand of the CA professionals.

In a reciprocal move, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has recently taken an in-principle approval to strike partnership with other professionals such as CA and cost accountants.

“If multi-disciplinary firms come up, it will be a welcome step as they lead to better profitability for the firms and convenience for the clients by pooling in resources under a common umbrella,” said Gupta.