Ranchi, Nov. 1: Aspiring chartered accountants of the capital are cut up over the increase in admission fees.
The charges have gone up by 50 per cent for students appearing both the preliminary and final examinations.
The hike by the Institute of Chartered accountants of India (ICAI), comes after four years. The rates will be effective from the first week of October.
Earlier, the admission fee for the Professional Examination (PE-I) was Rs 2,000. It has been increased to Rs 3000. Likewise, the admission fees for PE-II has been raised from Rs 2,650 to Rs 3,500. Final-year students now have to shell out Rs 4,000 instead of the earlier Rs 3,250.
Said a student of PE II, Mayur Mishra, ?Our earlier batch could complete the entire three-year course by paying only Rs 1500. But now, we have to shell out Rs 1000 extra for even the PE-1 course.?
Hefty fees charged by private tutors and other expenses make it difficult for students, he said. ?We have to take tuition for each paper. There are four papers in PE-I and six in PE-II.? Private tutors charge Rs 1,000 every month for one paper only, he said. ?How can students from poor or even lower middle-class families pay such a huge amount? Besides, the CA aspirants also have to undergo computer a training course from Aptech. It is mandatory. For that, we pay Rs 6000 per month. Even to register for the computer course, one has to pay Rs 2,000 to ICAI,? he added.
However, chairman of ICAI, Ranchi branch, P.N. Dubey told The Telegraph that in comparison to other professional courses offered by various institutions, they were charging much less.
He said, ?Keeping in mind the cost of assistance we are providing to the students, the hike is feasible. The ICAI has increased the fees after four years. We also provide students course material which costs more than Rs 5,000 in the market?.
A chartered accountant who passed out in 1997, Rinku Sarawagi, said, ?In our time, the admission fees was Rs 1200. Besides, we used to pay only Rs 300 for the first-year and Rs 600 for PE 1 and II course each. But I think the fee hike is nominal. No other professional course is as cheap as CA. Students should not crib as the profession ensures that they get back their investment and more when they pass out.?
An accountant of 1999 batch, Uday Jaiswal, also said it was a nominal hike. ? Paying Rs 15,000 is a good deal. You need the same amount for a computer course or other professional courses.?
