Actuaries, Surveyors May Soon Get Chartered Status

The finance ministry has cleared a Bill to provide chartered status to the institute of actuaries and surveyors. The Bill, now being vetted by the law ministry, is expected to be tabled during the winter session of Parliament.

Once the Bill is cleared by Parliament, the current system of licensing of surveyors will come to an end. "India is perhaps the only country in the world which has a system of licensing of agents and once the bill is passed the system would come to an end," a senior government official said.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) had sent a proposal to the government seeking chartered status for the surveyors and actuaries some time back on the lines of the status accorded to chartered accountants and company secretaries.

 

The Bill seeks to provide the two institute with powers to conduct examinations and those who qualify the tests would be eligible to become members of the Institute of Surveyors and the Actuarial Society of India (ASI).

In case of actuaries, the society is in place even at this point of time but a legislative framework would be provided after the passage of the Bill. At present, in case of surveyors, based on the amount of business undertaken by them, Irda assigns them into three categories.

The two bodies would also be vested with disciplinary powers and would be allowed to take action against errant members. They are, however, not being given suo motu powers by the government to call for information from their members and would be allowed to issue notices to the members only on receipt of a complaint against them.

Officials said that before the bill is tabled in Parliament, it will be sent to Cabinet for approval. They, however, did not specify any timeframe.

The demand for surveyors and actuaries is on the rise after the government decided to liberalise the insurance sector and opened it to private sector. Irda has prescribed that every life insurance company will need to have an actuary, while the same is not mandatory for general insurers.