NAGPUR: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the office of the Comptroller of the Auditor General (CAG) are jointly working to bring in independent audit systems using… Blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI). This would enable tracking of every transaction which would act as a block linking it to all stakeholders and even regulators through a seamless mechanism.ICAI is the professional governing body for chartered accountants formed by an Act of Parliament where the CAG audits government bodies. There have been rounds of talks with the CAG, including one meeting last month. The plan will start with a review of public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the initial stage, ICAI Central Council member Umesh Sharma told TOI. He was in the city to attend the groundbreaking event of the new building of the ICAI branch in Nagpur. The Central Council is the governing body of ICAI.It’s the beginning. Both ICAI and CAG have initiated the work keeping in mind the importance of independent audit, Sharma said. Under this, the deal will seamlessly interface not only with various stakeholders but also with departments like Income Tax or Goods and Services Tax.Explaining the concept, chartered accountant and former vice-chairman of the ICAI Regional Council, Gulfesh Shah, said independent auditing uses artificial intelligence to conduct financial checks that go beyond simple data entry systems. It is expected to be more accurate compared to manual audits. It can include artificial intelligence agents to audit books, identify risks, and create worksheets. He said it can help in early detection of scams as well.A chartered accountant explained that the validity of every debit and credit entry in the organization can be verified as the seamless system will have access to the books of all relevant parties at a given time.The Institute of Chartered Certified Accountants, as part of its pre-Budget memorandum, has written to the Ministry of Finance to allow audit of 3B returns under the GST regime. This is a summary of the internal and external transactions of a business entity. The Institute of Chartered Certified Accountants (ICAI) has asked the government to allow filing of revised returns as there is a scope of inadvertent errors unlike what happens now when returns cannot be changed.Sharma said IAI also pushed for accelerated recovery of Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounts arising from rate reductions under the new GST regime.
