ICAI May Pause Global Networking Guidelines Amid Audit Firm Concerns

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) may pause its global networking guidelines to address concerns of stakeholders, including audit firms with existing international tie-ups, people aware of the development told ET. The institute could, therefore, hold further talks with stakeholders to iron out the wrinkles.

The ICAI (Global Networking) Guidelines, 2025, encourage domestic accountancy firms to tie up with their global peers to set up shop in India but these require all such entities, including those with existing foreign collaborations, to register themselves with the institute.

They also need to comply with certain business disclosure requirements, including the specific nature of global collaborations, and appoint partners of “good standing” within the firms as nodal officers for compliances, among others.

However, major audit firms with global affiliations in India, such as the Big 4, are opposed to the registration and sharing of details with the ICAI, ET has learnt. They fear their global partners would refuse to share the required details, and any data leak could potentially compromise their operational secrets.

Also, the move would raise their compliance burden, one of the people said.

Decision soon

The guidelines were approved by the ICAI council in December 2025 and notified in February this year.

The corporate affairs ministry, too, also wants stakeholder concerns to be addressed first for any effective implementation of the guidelines, he added.

The matter was examined by the ICAI Council in its meeting last week and the institute would soon announce its decision, a second person said.

For their part, senior ICAI officials had earlier said the guidelines were about enabling a larger number of Indian accounting firms to pursue global tie-ups for growth through a structured framework.

The compliance requirements were not onerous and aimed at improving operational transparency of such firms, especially about the collaboration, they had said.

Before these guidelines were issued by the ICAI, there was no formal framework governing such global tie-ups. Those with foreign tie-ups were earlier required to submit certain details with the ICAI by submitting a form. But even this practice was discontinued in 2021, as a formal framework on this was sought to be introduced.

The guidelines, then ICAI president Charanjot Singh Nanda had told ET, were aimed at enabling local entities to gain scale, in sync with the Modi government’s vision of creating large home-grown accounting firms comparable to the Big Four.