What’s in a name? A lot, it seems. The country’s two premier accounting bodies — the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) have locked horns over the government’s move to change their names.
It’s a 25-year-long battle between the two bodies that has risen in a crescendo. Recently, the ICWAI Amendment Bill, which calls for the removal of ‘works’ from the name of ICWAI, was passed in the Rajya Sabha. There also are talks of removing the word ‘chartered’, a so-called colonial word, from ICAI’s name.
ICWAI has demanded that the word management, instead, be added to its name, as is the practice in most other countries. It has accused ICAI of interfering in its matter and alleged that it is because of the latter’s vehement opposition the new proposed name that the word ‘management’ has not been included in its name.
“The qualification of Indian cost and works accounts professionals is not recognised and looked down upon by many abroad, while their counterparts from Pakistan and Thailand, with equivalent degrees of cost and management accounts, enjoy a preference,” argues ICWAI President M Gopalakrishnan.
On the other hand, ICAI President G Ramaswamy, questioning the use of ‘management’ in ICWAI’s name, asserts management is certainly not ICWAI’s domain. “Management is a generic term. The Parliamentary debate was very clear that the term management could not be given to this institution,” he adds.
However, he maintains that ICAI had no role in the recently passed Bill. It was Parliament’s standing committee on finance that had suggested dropping the word ‘works’, without replacing it with ‘management’.
“It is the wisdom of the Parliamentary standing committee”, he says, maintaining that his institution does not have a problem ICWAI continuing with ‘works’ in its name.
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ICWAI says that in a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the issue, the government representatives argued against the use of a “colonial” word like ‘chartered’ in ICAI’s name. It claims that the government said this was a matter left to ICAI to consider.
ICWAI’s grouse is that it was not consulted before its name was proposed to be changed, while ICAI’s concerns are being taken into consideration. It has demanded that ICAI should be rechristened without the word ‘chartered’.
On this, Ramaswamy says: “Chartered was given to us in a 1949 Act of Parliament and no one has the right to question it.”
Gopalakrishnan adds that removing the word ‘works’ will leave ICWAI with the abbreviated name ICAI which will create more confusion. Ramaswamy contends: “They will have to think of another name, they just cannot use ICAI.”
In fact, Ramaswamy takes the controversy beyond the fight over names. “In today’s context, cost audit report is not required in an economy where you are removing government subsidies. Is it correct to share confidential competitive information with everyone,” he asks.
He adds that it may adversely affect “corporate management and competition secrecy”.