'Creative Accounting' will soon be a thing of the past: President Murmu

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday said 'creative accounting', or the exploitation of loopholes in the financial rules and regulations, is soon going to be a 'thing of the past' due to fast-evolving technology in the auditing space. Addressing a gathering on the 75th Chartered Accountants' Day, the President said manual assessment of data is fast becoming outdated, as she called for the fast adoption of technology by auditors to easily detect wrongdoings by unscrupulous elements.

As artificial intelligence gains traction, the data mining, auditing and accounting done by machines would herald drastic changes in the way these things are being done now, Murmu said. She called on the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to encourage greater technology adoption, which will help auditors not just keep pace with time, but also conduct accountancy in the right spirit.

Highlighting the important role that accountants play in a country's financial system, the President also lauded the rising participation of women in this profession. About 42% of those students who are going to take the CA examinations are women, she said, as she hoped that women would make up a half of the practicing CAs in the country by 2047.

Murmu also launched the new scheme of education and training for the chartered accountancy course on the ICAI's 75th anniversary of its foundation. Speaking on this occasion, Rao Inderjit Singh, minister of state for corporate affairs, said the evolution of technology and digital transformation, which led to automation, artificial intelligence and data analytics, necessitates that the accounting profession must equip itself suitably to adapt to these advancements.