The Government of India, along with The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI), is all set to launch a nation-wide GST-training programme to train one lakh accountants in the country to enable them to deliver GST compliance, especially to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are struggling with compliance.
Amit Apte, ICAI President said that the entire programme will be government-funded with ICAI as the partner. Entrance exams will be conducted for the GST accountant course and those who are not professionally qualified as of now to be GST advisers/consultants will be eligible for this programme.
The year-long programme will be 80 hours long and will be conducted in three batches. ICAI will be training the trainers and deliver the programme through 100 chapters and 300 extension centres across India.
Balwinder Singh, vice president of ICAI and chairman of Cost Accounting Standards Board, said that this is also a way of generating employment as these accountants can be self-employed.