Artificial intelligence to save more time for chartered accountants: ICAI President

In the audit profession, for instance, to check a 700-page annual report of a listed company, one can make a PDF and put it in Chat GPT.

Now, one doesn’t have to read the 700 pages as an auditor.

“You have to ask the questions like what is the profitability, what is the adverse comment…whatever you ask, Chat GPT will answer,” Agarwal said.

Amid instances of chartered accountants coming under the regulatory scanner, Agarwal said the institute has self-developed “so many checks and balances”.

The target is to have “lesser anomalies”, he said, adding that efforts are made to continuously enhance the skills of the chartered accountants.

For non-compliances, ICAI is also taking action against members, he added.

According to him, around 1. 5 crore certifications are done by the chartered accountants in the country in a year.

There are around 400-500 complaints on an annual basis, he noted.

To a question on the Byju’s case, he said it is under process.

The regulator is looking into financial disclosures made by the edtech for certain financial years.

According to him, there are cases where chartered accountants without any involvement have been framed.

This is a concern and to address this issue, the institute is working proactively, he added.

The corporate affairs ministry will be coming out with guidelines on how to protect the interests of chartered accountants.

It will be SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for the investigating agencies, Agarwal said.

Meanwhile, he said that last year, around 22,000 students cleared the chartered accountants examination and out of them, 9,000 opted for campus placements.

Average salary in campus placement was around Rs 12. 5 lakh.

The highest offered in India was Rs 24 lakh and Rs 41 lakh overseas.

The minimum salary offered was Rs 10 lakh, Agarwal said and stressed that there is a huge demand for chartered accountants, he added.

“In 1999, I was selected in campus placement by Raymonds for Rs 1. 5 lakh per annum. That comes to Rs 12,500 per month…I refused the job. My father was a businessman and he told me that if you have to earn so much after becoming CA, come to my place and I will give you the job,” the ICAI President said.