Now CAs Can Avail Finance to Set up Offices 

IT'S not a brick and mortar business, for sure. But now, even chartered accountants can avail of a specially crafted bank finance to build their practice brick by brick -construction of office, buying of office furniture, equipment and accessories courtesy Corporation Bank.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has teamed up with the public sector Corporation Bank for offering a specially designed scheme christened `Corp CA' to cater to various financial needs of chartered accountants.

Ramnath Pradeep, chairman & managing director of Corporation Bank said, "The chartered accountants are industrious, intelligent professionals and are trustees of financial competencies and good governance. They touch the life of individuals as well as companies. For us, chartered accountants are very important customers. Keeping these factors into account, the Bank has specially designed the product `Corp CA' for chartered accountants."

Through the scheme, eligible CAs can avail finance for construction of office premises including cost of furniture, fixture, office equipments such as com puters and other accessories. The scheme would also enable the CAs to finance a part of the working capital for building their profession and will take care of the needs of freshers (CAs with experience below three years).

Significantly, the demand for chartered accountants is rapidly growing on account of fast changing requirements of corporate sector. Changes in regulations, listing requirements, need for better corporate governance and so on have also necessitated the need of chartered accountants in all sectors of the industry.
Clearly, the demand of CAs is increasing consistently. In 2007, there were around 2.7 lakh students who were pursuing chartered accountancy course whereas now over 6 lakh students are pursuing this course.

Amarjit Chopra, president, ICAI said, "This will not only benefit the CA fraternity but would also mean additional business for the bank because of large and increasing membership base of CAs. This initiative will specially benefit freshers, smalland mid-sized practitioners as it would help them build up the infrastructure and thus join the main stream of the profession and grow."

Financial Chronicle, New Delhi, 18-10-2010