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.