Chartered accountants and cost accountants falling in the 2023 batch are learning the new syllabus. The students from the old syllabus should pay conversion fees. The fee of 250 is for the conversion from the old to the new syllabus. The official website says that the old-syllabus examination continue till December 2023. The inception of the new syllabus is from June 2023. The new syllabus provides an exemption for CAT students. The CAT exam passed out gets an exemption from writing business laws and ethics papers. This subject is part of the intermediate-level examination. Students get study material after paying the fees. The study material is an optional purchase for the students. A blog is here to talk about the syllabus and training changes.
Syllabus changes:
The changes in the new CMA course are with the subjects and weightage. The students see the lesson weightage before starting the revision. ICMAI’s official website says that the exam is an offline examination. It is for 100 marks. The time for each paper is three hours. The weightage and the time allocation are as follows:
- In the intermediate level, the units with more weightage in financial accounting are as follows: preparation of financial statements, commercial laws, corporate law, Accounting basics, industrial laws, self-balancing of ledgers, royalties, hire purchase and instalment system, branch and departmental accounts, and business ethics.
- The mark distribution for laws and ethics is as follows: head of income, computation of total income tax, introduction to cost accounting, methods of calculating costs, cost accounting techniques, tax management, administrative procedures and ICDS, and income tax audit basics.
- The mark distribution in operation management and strategic management is as follows: cost, management accounting and financial management, financial management, operations management, strategic management, project management, and introduction to operations management.
- The mark distribution in indirect taxation goes as follows: canons of taxation, accounts of joint stock companies, auditing, and customs laws.
- The mark distribution for corporate and economic laws is as follows: Corporate laws, economic laws and regulations and investment decisions.
- The mark distribution for corporate and economic laws is as follows: corporate laws, and economic laws and regulations.
- The priority list of topics for strategic financial management is as follows: investment decisions security analysis and portfolio management, financial risk management, international financial management and digital finance.
- The mark allocation in the direct tax laws and international taxation is direct tax laws and international taxation.
- The order for strategic cost management is strategic cost management for decision making and quantitative techniques in decision making.
- The list of units in cost and management audit are cost audit, management audit, internal control, internal audit, operational audit, and other related issues and forensic audit and anti-money laundering.
- The preparation list for corporate financial reporting is as follows: Indian accounting standards, valuation of shares, accounting and reporting of financial instruments and NBFCs, accounting for business combinations and restructuring, consolidated financial statements and separate financial statements, recent developments in financial reporting, and government accounting in India.
- The mark distribution of indirect tax laws and practices is the goods and services tax act and rules and customs act and rules.
- Paper twenty has three subjects: strategic performance management and business evaluation, risk management in banking and insurance, and entrepreneurship and start-up.
Changes in the training:
The students of CMA undergo article ship training, industrial training and skill-based training. The skill training operates through the online mode. SAP finance power user training, Microsoft training, e-filing training, and Cambridge University Press soft skills training are the skill training streams of a CMA student. The skill training is before the intermediate examination. It goes for 140 hours. It ends with an assessment test that decides eligibility. After the skill training, the students get into the 15 months of article ship training. The minimum period for practical training is 15 months, and the maximum period is three years. The practical training prepares the professionals for a competent job market. The third training is after the industrial training. This training is for seven days that goes before the final level examination. Industrial training educates the compliances and statutes.
Article ship training with CA firm and cost accountancy firm:
Cost accounting firms follow a set of laws that describe cost audits. Chartered accountants implement audit laws. A cost accountant doing practice can appoint a like-minded professional as a cost accountant. The audit assignments of cost accountants make use of the following laws: central goods and services tax act, 2017, central Board of excise and customs central board of indirect taxes and custom, ministry of health and family welfare, companies act, 2013, ministry of road transport and Highways, NSDL, NABARD, state cooperative societies act, bank circulars, state public sector enterprises, TRAI, SEBI, CERC, and VAT act.
Cost accountants guide the client in filing e-forms and obtaining certificates for the following acts: Companies Act, 2013, central excise valuation, central excise act, 1944, central electricity regulatory commission, directorate of Advertising and visual publicity, customs act, 1962, fertilizer industry coordination committee, the international financial services centre authority, insurance regulatory and development authority, ministry of commerce and industry, ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, special economic zone, ministry of textile, rubber board rubber rules, national pharmaceutical pricing authority, e-Madura, telecom regulatory authority of India, bureau of Indian standards, and ministry of finance. Other statutory work includes SEBI infrastructure investment trusts regulations, 2014, national securities depository ltd, central board of direct taxes, central board of Excise and Customs, central excise valuation, customs and central excise duties drawback rules, 1995, customs act, 1962, arbitration, customs valuation, insolvency and bankruptcy code, 2016, registered valuers and valuation rules, Maharashtra unaided private professional educational act, 2015, Calcutta high court valuer, and insurance institute of India.
The wide range of services provided by a cost accountant are as follows:
- Cost audit services
- Goods and services pricing
- Service tax
- Central excise services
- VAT services
- Rehabilitation services
- Project management services
- Managing profit centres
- Management of consultancy services
- Physical verification services
- Managing information systems
- System audit services
- Valuation of excise services
- Variance analysis
- Contribution analysis
- Break-even analysis
- Overhead analysis
The services offered by a CA audit firm are listed below:
- Chartered accountants take care of GST compliances and audit processes.
- Management accounting work of framing policies, evaluating performance, and controlling day-to-day activity.
- Share valuation after the acquisition.
- Audit the financial statement.
- The chartered accountants prepare the tax returns.
- Prepare the costing information for the management team.
- Chartered accountants take care of registration and secretarial work.
- Investigate the financial position and new business challenges.
- Chartered accountants attend to the request of solicitors or lawyers.
The job of cost accountant has an orientation with management consultation. The services of a chartered accountancy firm and a cost accountancy firm are not the same. If a cost accountant is in an article ship training in a cost accountancy firm, he would be placed on the management team side. Some chartered accountancy audit firms have branches of consultancy divisions. In such a case, the experience is valid. Article ship training in cost accountancy subject is mandatory for a cost accountant.
Conclusion:
Apart from syllabus changes, the student should prepare themselves for the training and job experience. The above content elucidates the purpose of the new CMA syllabus 2023.