Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the independence of chartered accountants (CAs) is extremely important for the trust and integrity of financial stakeholders.
“Accountants must ensure adherence to fair and transparent practices. So, their responsibility is not just limited to stakeholders but the trust of the stakeholders as well,” Sitharaman said in a keynote address to the World Congress of Accountants being held in Mumbai.
She said the world is going through many challenges, prompting multinational banks to reset themselves for challenges, she said.
“Statutory filings and audit reports are public documents and they are relied on by various stakeholders, including financial institutions, governments, and common retail investors.”
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As the adoption of new technology is necessary for a transparent accounting system, the minister said the accounting fraternity must examine how new technologies such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, data analytics and cloud computing could be employed.
“Meaningful generation of information to aid decision-making is going to be so much more machine-driven. Good analytics and discussion on these points would help us find unprecedented opportunities for data analytics to provide us with the solutions for some of the issues which dominate, of transparency or accountability itself,” she said.
“This is also necessary for the sustainable livelihoods of our people and also for sustainable manufacturing and services. Innovative technologies like Web 3.0, which has already taken over our lives, can bring about a lot of changes in the way we conduct our businesses,” she said.
The four-day global conference, held once in four years, is being organised for the first time in India. The conference was inaugurated by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.