The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued detailed guidelines for CA Intermediate students who wish to continue their exhausted exemptions and make them permanent for the upcoming January 2026 examination cycle.
According to the announcement, candidates who secured exemptions in the September 2024 examination-valid till the September 2025 attempt-can now opt to make these exemptions permanent after the declaration of the September 2025 results.
The "Permanent Exemption Window (Intermediate & Final) - January 2026" will be made available as per the important dates listed on the ICAI website at www.icai.org/post/exam-jan-2026.
Key Highlights of the Guidelines
- Candidates can apply for permanent exemption only once through their Self Service Portal (SSP) dashboard.
- If a student has exemptions in two papers of the same group, both must be made permanent together or allowed to lapse together. Partial selection is not permitted.
- Once an exemption is made permanent, the candidate must score at least 50% marks in each of the remaining papers of that group to pass.
- There will be no correction window or late fee option once the inputs are submitted.
- Candidates may also choose to surrender their exemption and reappear in the paper(s).
- If a Permanent Exemption (PE) already exists in a group, no new exemption will be granted for that group.
- For papers made permanently exempt, marks will be capped at 50 and any excess marks will not count toward aggregate requirements.
ICAI has advised students to carefully review their eligibility and apply within the stipulated period. Once the window closes, unclaimed exemptions will lapse permanently and cannot be restored.
For clarifications, candidates may write to inter.exemption@icai.in.
Official copy of the notification has been attached
CAclubindia
