Finding prima facie evidence of violations, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a detailed probe against accounting watchdog Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) with regard to alleged discriminatory practices in organising professional education programmes for its members. It is alleged that the ICAI's policy on continuing professional education (CPE) scheme is discriminatory and abusive.
The complaint filed by Arun Anandagiri, who is a qualified chartered accountant, has said the institute's CPE policy does not allow any other organisation to provide the service of holding CPE seminars other than that offered by the ICAI's programme organising unit.
Observing that there "seems to be force in the allegations", the CCI has ordered its Director-General to carry out a detailed probe against the institute in the matter.
The watchdog refers cases to the DG when prima facie there is evidence of violating competition norms.
"If during the course of investigation, involvement of any other party is found, the DG shall investigate the conduct of such other parties including conduct of group companies..," the order dated February 28 and released on Wednesday said.
The probe could also look into the role of persons who were in charge of and were responsible for the conduct of the businesses of such companies.
According to the Commission, it is not the case that the activity of ICAI in organising CPE seminars is a not-for-profit exercise.
Citing the ICAI's annual report for 2012-13, the complainant has submitted that the institute earned gross revenues of Rs.45 crore from organising seminars and conferences, which accounted for around 8 per cent of the institute's total revenue.
As per the Commission, members of the institute "had no option but to attend the seminars organised by the ICAI (whatever be the quality of seminars) to get the requisite CPE credits.
Competition panel orders probe on ICAI's continuing professional education policy
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NEW DELHI, MARCH 13:
The CA Institute's continuing professional education (CPE) policy is now under the scanner of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The CCI has directed its investigative arm to probe an allegation that the CA Institute was abusing its dominant position by imposing discriminatory conditions on CPE.
The CA Institute declined to comment on this development even as the CCI probe may affect its revenues from the activity of organising seminars and conferences.
It is probably for the first time that a non-regulatory function carried out by a regulator (CA Institute --accountancy profession regulator) is under the scanner of another regulator (CCI-competition regulator).
The complainant –Arun Anandagiri—has alleged that the CPE policy was discriminatory as it does not allow any other organisation to provide the service of organising CPE seminars.
The CPE policy allowed only the institute's recognised program organising unit (POU) to conduct the seminars that carry CPE credits.
SEES MERIT
There seems to be force in the allegations that the restriction put in by the CA Institute in not allowing any other organisation to conduct the CPE seminars for CPE credits, the CCI has said in a recent order.
The allegation is that such an approach has created an entry barrier for the other players in the relevant market---"organising recognised CPE seminars / workshops/ conferences in India".
WHAT IS CPE?
The concept of CPE was introduced by the CA Institute for its members to maintain high standards of excellence in the professional activities.
As per the CPE policy, the chartered accountants (CAs) in practice have to annually attain 20 hours of structured CPE credits and 10 hours of un-structured CPE credits.
CAs not holding certificate of practice have to attain 15 hours of unstructured CPE credits annually.
While structured CPE credits can be attained by attending seminar/conferences/workshops organised by the CA Institute or being a faculty at the seminar organised by ICAI organs or by writing an article for the ICAI journal.
The unstructured CPE credit can be obtained by reading professional journals, business literature, attending internal training program of CA firms with 7 or more partners.
The present case focuses upon the structured CPE credits and organisation of the seminars/conferences/workshops for obtaining these credits.
(This article was published on March 13, 2014)
On Friday, 14 March 2014 12:21 PM, Deep Jain <deepjainca@gmail.com> wrote:
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