Hyderabad: Goods and Services Tax (GST) has brought about a syllabus change for professional courses like Chartered Accountancy (CA) and Company Secretaryship (CS).
Students preparing for the ‘indirect taxes’ paper of the CA final have been notified that ten marks will be from the new taxation system this November. However from May 2018 exams onwards, 75 marks will be allotted for the new taxation system.
Educational experts feel that students preparing for the November exams are studying irrelevant data as it is based on the old system. Justin Raj, a Chartered Accountancy teacher, says, “Thinking from a student's point of view, it is good that they do not have to study a whole portion. The pass percentage of Group 2 in the CA final last year was just 12 per cent so repeaters have to work hard as a shift in syllabus will mean change of a lot of concepts. They have to clear the paper or get an exemption which will be a challenge. New students will find it easier as the number of sections have reduced but there will still be a lot of doubts as GST still has grey areas.”
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) constituted an advisory board to ensure that students were not affected by the change. Company Secretary P K Singh, a member of the board, says, “The syllabus change has been notified. Around eighty marks will be related to GST from 2018. Students should hopefully be able to cope with it. I believe that repeaters might accept the change of syllabus better as they are tired of the old provisions.”
With professional courses being the most sought out career choice, many students are apprehensive about the syllabus change. Sooraj Raj, a CA aspirant, says, “I have to try to pass the final this November or else it will lead to a lot of confusion. Out of the 150 case studies we are required to study, a hundred will be dropped in May as it does not follow GST.”
Both the institutes, ICAI and ICSI have conducted a series of sessions for students and teachers about the new taxation system to ease the transition.
