Changes in the CA course !!

With the launching of Accounting Technician Course, certain changes had to be made to the existing scheme of the Chartered Accountancy course. In the new scheme, any CPT pass student can get registered for `Integrated Professional Competence Course’ (IPCC) (new name for the course earlier called PCC) without articleship registration and can sit in the new IPCC exam after 9 months of registration. The new IPCC comprises 2 groups. Group 1 has 4 papers and Group 2 has 3 papers.

Though the number of papers of the IPCC has been increased from 6 to 7, there is no change in the syllabus. The existing syllabus on Accounting has been divided into two parts. The first part has been named as Accounting in Group I and the second part has been named as Advanced Accounting in Group II. Only on passing Group I of the IPCC will a student be eligible to get registered for articleship, which shall now be for a period of 3 years as against the existing requirement of 3½ years. Further, under the new scheme, a student will be eligible to sit in the final exam in last six months of his articleship as against the existing condition to sit in final exam only after the completion of articleship.

The new scheme has come into effect from 10th December, 2008. However, an option has been given till 30th June, 2009 to the existing CPT pass students and to those who appeared in CPT examination held on 14th December, 2008 to choose between the PCC and the new IPCC. Those students who have passed CPT and have not so far got themselves registered for articleship and also those who pass CPT exam held on 14th December, 2008 (of which result is likely to be declared on 16th January, 2009) are free and eligible to get registered under the new scheme for the IPCC after the declaration of CPT result without articleship registration. All such students getting registered for the IPCC on or before 31st January, 2009 will be eligible to sit in the new IPCC exam scheduled for November, 2009 as they will have completed 9 months of study by that time. Complete details of the new scheme are available on the website of the Institute.