The CA institute must delve deep into the concept of “presumptive loss” and look at defining it, Mr K. Rahman Khan, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has suggested. “Now that the CAG has said that calculating presumptive loss and reporting it was very much within its domain (legal), there is need for defining it or having standards around this concept. This is a must to avoid confusion in society,” Mr Khan said at an event to mark the foundation day of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) here. The CA institute must aggressively take up accounting and auditing related issues like presumptive loss and also suggest measures to the Government so as to improve the efficiency of public expenditure. The concept of presumptive loss has come into sharp focus after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) drew attention of such a loss in its report on 2G Spectrum allocation. “The civil society is losing faith in Governmental systems. The chartered accountants alone are not responsible for this. But accounting and auditing professionals do have a role to play in streamlining the system,” he said, adding that there was no dearth of laws in India. He highlighted the fact that the Government had not been able to adopt accrual-based accounting although the effort in this direction had started nearly two decades ago. Speaking on the occasion, the ICAI President, Mr G. Ramaswamy, said that the institute has been taking several initiatives to improve the professional opportunities for its members.
Panel on black money
Also as a public interest entity, the CA institute has now decided to set up a committee on black money and illegal money transfers abroad. This committee will suggest changes to the laws so as to tackle the menace of black money. Mr D.K. Mittal, Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, released a technical guide for audit in automobile industry. A Web site for small and medium practitioners was also launched today. - www.thehindubusinessline.com
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