One lakh students to be trained in GST accountancy, govt to fund fees

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) would provide training to about one lakh students on the soon-to-be launched GST Accountants course, a senior official said Thursday.

The government is coming out with Goods and Services Tax (GST) Accountants course and plans to train about 1 lakh GST Accountants over the next one to one-and-half year.

The course fees would be fully funded by the Government of India, ICAI president Amit Anand Apte told reporters here.

The objective of the programme is to ensure that compliance as far GST is concerned increases especially in the SMEs sector, he said adding the intention was to serve the sector because there was a gap between availability of trained resources and requirements.

"GST Accountants programme will be launched very soon.. about 1 lakh accountants will be trained specifically on GST compliances.

We are working out the modalities with theMinistry of Corporate Affairs and the course would be tentatively launched by February end," Apte said.
 

The biggest challenge before the government is that most of the SMEs are not able to comply with the provisions of the (GST) law because they are not equipped enough with right kind of trained accountants who can adhere to the various GST provisions, he said.

The concept is to train 1 lakh accountants across the country who will be able to serve the SMEs sector.

Once these accountants are trained they will be able to serve all the SMEs and the compliance from the field would also improve substantially, Apte said adding this proposal was discussed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and then taken up with NITI Aayog which has approved it.

The course content is almost ready and it would be a 50-hours classroom training.

Besides, there would be a 10-hour practical training wherein the government would impart live training in the form of computerised filing of the returns in various GST offices across the country, he said.

Those from commerce stream could undergo this course and an entrance exam would be conducted by ICAI shortly and those candidates who qualify the exams would be eligible to undertake this GST Accountants course, he said.

The course would be conducted through ICAI's 98 chapters and about 300 extension centres across the country, he added.