ICAI prez: Disciplinary committee probing Byju's auditing 'lapses'

Byju's financial disclosures had come under ICAI's scanner because of a 22-month delay in the submission of its financial reports

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s (ICAI)’s disciplinary committee is looking into the Byju’s matter on the recommendation of the Institute's disciplinary directorate, ICAI President Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal told reporters on Monday.

 

“The disciplinary committee can accept or reject the prima facie opinion of the directorate. They are currently looking into this matter,” Agarwal said.

 

The financial review and regulatory board of ICAI had suo motu taken up the matter last year and found lapses in the books of the edtech company after which it had referred the matter to ICAI's disciplinary directorate. Byju’s financial disclosures had come under ICAI’s scanner because of a 22-month delay in submission of its financial reports.

 

Agarwal shared that the total number of cases heard by ICAI this financial year (FY25) till December 19 was 262 against 336 in FY24. Punishment was awarded in 211 cases till December 19 against 119 in the previous financial year.

 

Meanwhile, ICAI is launching a special course for CAs and advisors to family businesses to equip them to understand the specific requirements of such companies. A five-day programme being launched on January 7 would cover various areas, including succession planning, building family governance, resolving conflicts, along with fundraising and ownership structuring.

 

The Institute has also come up with an artificial intelligence (AI) tool — CA GPT, which gives easy and fast access to annual reports of 5,000 listed companies to CAs.

 

“AI will not replace CAs. But CAs with knowledge of AI will certainly replace those with no knowledge of AI,” Agarwal said.

 

The ICAI is planning to expand its centre of excellence institutes from three to 11 in by 2028 to focus on different areas of specialisation, including AI, and sustainability reporting.

 

“We want to make India the global hub for accounting. We have partnered with International Financial Services Centres Authority for the same as well,” the ICAI president added.

 

ICAI is also in the process of finalising networking guidelines that would allow Indian firms and CAs to partner with their global counterparts.

 

Commenting on steps being taken to establish an Indian Big Four firm, Agarwal said that revisions to the Advertisement and Website Guidelines are underway to modernise outreach strategies for CAs within a regulatory framework. The demerger timelines have been increased, he said, from five to 10 years to give firms more time to get acquainted with each other before finalising decision to part ways.