With high-quality professionals galore, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday exhorted the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to start work for the creation of an Indian CA behemoth which will be among the top four globally.
Currently, the top global accountancy firms are Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC.
“Our CAs become leaders and partners in the big four. Most of them become Partners after working 3-5 years. But you would rather become a partner, but not form a big four in India. Why?”, she asked speaking at an ICAI Bihar chapter event in Patna.
While the government will have a 100-day action plan after assuming power, the ICAI should also have a 100-day plan to create a big enough and strong enough professional CA firm which will be recognised as one of the four as India progresses to become a developed nation by 2047.
“The Bihar ICAI (chapter) should start work to lay the foundation of big CA firm in coordination with ICAI headquarters,” Sitharaman said.
Separately, addressing the Bihar Chamber of Commerce & Industries in Patna, the minister said banks have reported a record net profit of over `3 trillion in FY24 after the government’s policies brought back the public sector banks into profitability from the mess created by the previous government. She expressed confidence that with improvement in their health, banks will further augment credit delivery to the needy sectors including the poor and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, the minister said the Modi government wants eastern states to be the engines of growth to achieve the goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
“The accelerated growth of eastern states has always remained a top priority of the NDA-led Central government. The Central government wants eastern states like Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha to become engines of growth for the whole country,” she said.
Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration of three fertilizer plants in Barauni, Sindri, and Gorakhpur, with a total investment exceeding Rs 27,000 Crore, signified the revival of the Eastern region as a significant fertilizer-producing hub, she said, pointing out that this tag had been lost for the past 20 years. The combined capacity of these plants adds up to 38.1 MTPA per annum.