Use of Designation(s) other than the designation of “Chartered Accountant”

It has been brought to the notice of the Insti­tute that some mem­bers are using the cer­tain des­ig­na­tion (s) oth­er than Char­tered Accoun­tant in addi­tion to the des­ig­na­tion “Char­tered Accoun­tant’. In this regard, the atten­tion of the mem­bers is drawn on Item (7) of Part‑I of First Sched­ule to the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 which pro­vides that a Char­tered Accoun­tant in prac­tice shall be deemed to be guilty of pro­fes­sion­al mis­con­duct if he uses any des­ig­na­tion or expres­sions oth­er than char­tered accoun­tant on pro­fes­sion­al doc­u­ments, vis­it­ing cards, let­ter heads or sign boards, unless it be a degree of a Uni­ver­si­ty estab­lished by law in India or recog­nised by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment or a title indi­cat­ing mem­ber­ship of the Insti­tute of Char­tered Accoun­tants of India or of any oth­er insti­tu­tion that has been recog­nised by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment or may be recog­nised by the Council.

Fur­ther, atten­tion of the mem­bers is also drawn to the fol­low­ing paras appear­ing at page no. 154 of the Code of Ethics, 2009 under com­men­tary of Item (7):-

“It is improp­er for a Char­tered Accoun­tant to state on his pro­fes­sion­al doc­u­ments that he is an Income-tax Con­sul­tant, Cost Accoun­tant, Com­pa­ny Sec­re­tary, Cost Con­sul­tant or a Man­age­ment Consultant”.

“While not­ing that it had already allowed its mem­bers to appear before the var­i­ous author­i­ties includ­ing Com­pa­ny Law Board, Income Tax Appel­late Tri­bunal, Sales Tax Tri­bunal where the law has per­mit­ted the same, so far as the des­ig­na­tion “Cor­po­rate Lawyer” is con­cerned, the Coun­cil was of the view that as per the exist­ing pro­vi­sions of law, a Char­tered Accoun­tant in prac­tice is not enti­tled to use the des­ig­na­tion “Cor­po­rate Lawyer”.

“The mem­bers are not per­mit­ted to use the ini­tials ‘CPA’ (stand­ing for Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant) on their vis­it­ing cards”.

“Mem­bers of the Insti­tute in prac­tice who are oth­er­wise eli­gi­ble may also prac­tice as Com­pa­ny Sec­re­taries and/or Cost Accoun­tants. Such mem­bers shall, how­ev­er, not use designation/s of the afore­said Institute/s simul­ta­ne­ous­ly with the des­ig­na­tion “Char­tered Accountant”.

Sec­tion 7 of the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 also pro­vides that every mem­ber of the Insti­tute in prac­tice shall, and any oth­er mem­ber may, use the des­ig­na­tion of a char­tered accoun­tant and no mem­ber using such des­ig­na­tion shall use any oth­er descrip­tion, whether in addi­tion there­to or in sub­sti­tu­tion there­for unless such descrip­tions indi­cate the mem­ber­ship of any oth­er account­ing body rec­og­nized by the Coun­cil in this behalf or the qual­i­fi­ca­tion he may possess.

In view of the above, though the mem­bers are allowed to use the descrip­tion as to their qual­i­fi­ca­tions how­ev­er mem­bers are not per­mit­ted to use any oth­er des­ig­na­tion along­with the des­ig­na­tion ‘Char­tered Accoun­tant’. Mem­bers are there­fore advised to abstain from using any oth­er des­ig­na­tion with the des­ig­na­tion ‘Char­tered Accoun­tant’ fail­ing which they may be liable for dis­ci­pli­nary action, as per the pro­vi­sions of the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 and Rules/Regulations framed thereunder.

V. Sagar
Act­ing Secretary
The Insti­tute of Char­tered Accoun­tants of India

18th Feb­ru­ary, 2015