| It has forwarded the proposal to Minister of State for Finance Pawan Bansal. |
| Talking to Business Standard, K S Tanwar, chairman, ICWAI, Chandigarh, said, "In the era of growing competition for cutting costs and instilling in-built cost efficiency, cost accountants have a new role to play. To achieve this, there is a need to include cost accountants in the definition of 'accountant' in the Income-Tax Act as well as in all state VAT Acts for audit and appearance before the authorities concerned." |
| So far, no state in the north except for Delhi has authorised to use their services, even though 13 states in the country have authorised them. |
| However, he said recently, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan assured that very soon cost accountants would be allowed to audit by making an amendment in the Haryana VAT Act. |
| On the banking front, Tanwar said all audits, project reports and working capital requirements should be certified by cost accountants. There should be periodic review reports from members to avoid formation of NPAs. There should be statutory provisions for appointment of cost accountants by all tariff regulatory bodies. |
| "Cost audit should be made compulsory for all companies covered under Section 209. The institute wants all manufacturing and service sectors, except for small industries, covered. There is a case for bringing all governmental activities and projects (both Central and State) under mandatory managerial (cost) accounting and compulsory appointment of cost accountants in all companies in line with the recommendations of the Sachar Committee that was formed in the 80s," said Rakesh Bhalla, secretary, ICWAI, Chandigarh. |
| Bansal, who is an MP from Chandigarh, said he had asked the chairman of the ICWAI to submit a concrete proposal and assured that the matter will be considered after proper study. "I will consider the amendment in the draft Value Added Tax Act to accommodate cost accountants for their role," he said. |
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