Draft Amendment in CA Regulation, 1988 for Increase in Answer Book Inspection Fee & maximum Limit awaits Central Govt. Approval

Draft amend­ments in the Char­tered Accoun­tants Reg­u­la­tions, 1988 noti­fied in the Gazette of India vide Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 1‑CA(7)/167/2014 dat­ed 10th Sep­tem­ber, 2014. — (19–11-2014)

The Coun­cil at its 337th meet­ing held on 29th, 30th and 31st Octo­ber, 2014 in the office of the Insti­tute at A‑29, Sec­tor 62, Noi­da con­sid­ered the com­ments received on draft amend­ments in the Char­tered Accoun­tants Reg­u­la­tions, 1988 noti­fied vide Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 1‑CA(7)/167/2014 dat­ed 10th Sep­tem­ber, 2014 in the Gazette of India, Extra­or­di­nary, dat­ed 10th Sep­tem­ber, 2014.

The Coun­cil on a con­sid­er­a­tion of these com­ments decid­ed as under:-

Reg­u­la­tion 39(4):
The Coun­cil not­ed that the exist­ing lim­it pre­scribed under this reg­u­la­tion is Rs.500/- and the actu­al fee being charged is Rs.100/- per paper sub­ject to a max­i­mum of Rs.400/-. The Coun­cil also not­ed that the draft amend­ments as noti­fied seek to increase the upper ceil­ing only from Rs.500/- to Rs.2500/- and this was in line with oth­er enabling pro­vi­sions in the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 per­tain­ing to annu­al mem­ber­ship fee and cer­tifi­cate of prac­tice fee. The Coun­cil on a con­sid­er­a­tion of these com­ments was of the view that under the pro­posed amend­ments also the actu­al fee to be charged is to be decid­ed by the Coun­cil from time to time. How­ev­er, con­sid­er­ing the com­ments received, the Coun­cil decid­ed to make the draft amend­ments more clar­i­fi­ca­to­ry and these be mod­i­fied as under:-

Page No. 4 — Clause (a) of the Gazette of India — in reg­u­la­tion 39(4) for the words “rupees two thou­sand five hun­dred”, the words “rupees three hun­dred fifty per paper sub­ject to a max­i­mum of Rs.2500/- for all the papers tak­en togeth­er” be substituted.

It is clar­i­fied that the above is only an enabling pro­vi­sion which empow­ers the Coun­cil to increase the fees upto the lim­it pre­scribed over a peri­od of time, with­out hav­ing to approach the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment. As such, the exist­ing fee being charged cur­rent­ly remains unchanged.

Reg­u­la­tion 39A:
The Coun­cil not­ed that the exist­ing fee for this pur­pose is Rs.500/- per answer book and that the draft amend­ments seek to fix the upper ceil­ing for inspec­tion of answer books at Rs.5,000 and for sup­ply of cer­ti­fied copy of eval­u­at­ed answer books at Rs.8,000/- and that this was in line with oth­er enabling pro­vi­sions in the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 per­tain­ing to annu­al mem­ber­ship fee and cer­tifi­cate of prac­tice fee. The Coun­cil on a con­sid­er­a­tion of these com­ments was of the view that under the pro­posed amend­ments also the actu­al fee to be charged is to be decid­ed by the Coun­cil from time to time. How­ev­er, keep­ing in view the com­ments received, the Coun­cil decid­ed to make the fol­low­ing mod­i­fi­ca­tions on the draft amendments:-

Page No. 4 — Ser­i­al No. 4. of the Gazette of India — in pro­posed new reg­u­la­tion 39A for the words “rupees five thou­sand in the case of inspec­tion of answer book and rupees eight thou­sand in case of sup­ply of cer­ti­fied copy of eval­u­at­ed answer book”, the words “rupees five hun­dred per paper sub­ject to a max­i­mum of rupees four thou­sand for inspec­tion of answer book or sup­ply of cer­ti­fied copy of eval­u­at­ed answer book or both” be substituted.

Here again, it is clar­i­fied that the above is only an enabling pro­vi­sion which empow­ers the Coun­cil to increase the fees upto the lim­it pre­scribed over a peri­od of time, with­out hav­ing to approach the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment. As such, the exist­ing fee being charged cur­rent­ly remains unchanged.

The draft amend­ments as above have been sent to the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment for approval.