'Protect CAs, break Big Four dominance': Congress MP in Rajya Sabha

Congress leader Vivek K Tankha on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha demanded legal protection for chartered accountants and called for measures to break the dominance of four multinational audit firms in India, saying domestic CA firms need government support to compete.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the Madhya Pradesh MP said Deloitte, PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), E&Y (Ernst & Young), and KPMG have mandates worth more than ₹10,000 crore each, while nearly one lakh Indian CA firms have businesses that never cross ₹10 crore.

"I am voicing the concern of nearly five lakh chartered accountants who live in this country and work, and also more than four lakh who live abroad. They are the gatekeepers of our businesses. They are the crisis managers of our operationalised government policies," Tankha said.

 

Highlighting the critical role CAs played in implementing policies like demonetisation and GST, he said: "The ministers may announce, but it is the CAs who implemented it. The government makes a policy declaration, but it is the CAs who are fighting for the population and making it work because there were so many forms, so much law, so many rules, which a common man didn't even know."  Tankha said CAs feel their privacy and client confidentiality are threatened due to intrusion by investigative agencies. He cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that castigated agencies, saying a CA cannot be held responsible for documents provided by clients.

"The time has come for a CA Protection Act, or at least some act which protects lawyers, some law which protects doctors. CAs also need to be protected," he said.

The Congress leader questioned how Indian CA firms could compete when tenders are floated for mandates worth more than ₹500 crore.

"Which Indian law firm, CA law firm can even bid for it? All this is happening because these (four big) firms have great influence. Most of the children of bureaucrats were either joining these firms, or now these days they're becoming lawyers," he said.

Tankha said it was time to encourage domestic CA firms to grow and reduce the influence of the Big Four, who "audit, account and operationalise everything that happens in India."  He also highlighted the contribution of over 8,000-10,000 CAs working in West Asia, saying they are bringing business and money into India.