The biggest change has come in the wake of section 14 (A)(A) of the Finance Bill 1997 providing that valuation for excise and Modvat credit are to be done only by practising cost accountants. ``The Bill states that the concerned commissioners of Central Excise can order a special audit by a qualified cost accountant, if he feels it is necessary,'' said Amal Kumar Das, president of the National Council of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India. ``There are around 94,000 business houses which might come under this special audit and that means more business for the practising cost accountants.''

Compared to the professional chartered accountants or the company secretaries, cost accountants have suffered due to certain inherent flaws in the original Act of Parliament that set upthe ICWAI, as well as incompetent functioning of the body in the 1980s and the early 1990s, according to senior cost accountants.

``This has led to frustration among the rank and file of qualified cost accountants, especially the younger generations,'' opined a senior practising cost accountant in Calcutta.

However, certain victories have been won in the recent years. Accounting standards, earlier the domain of the chartered accountants' body, will now be determined by a national advisory board which will include cost accountants too. According to Das, the current BJP-led government is considering the possibility of extending the scope of mandatory cost audit to all industries instead of the currently notified 43. Cost accountants are now qualified to work as liquidators too.

There is some re-positioning and re-branding being done by the ICWAI too. D Jagannathan, acting secretary of the institute, said ``Certain methods and tools of decision making like value-chain analysis, activity based costing,benchmarking, just-in-time accounting are taught in detail only in the ICWAI course. In the present scenario when global competitiveness is the issue, the presence of the cost accountant in the corporate structures is becoming extremely vital.''

To take advantage of the situation, the institute is looking to tie up with one of the IIMs for exchange programmes. The other thrust area seems to be the introduction of practical training on information technology tools, within the syllabi.

However, members of the national council of ICWAI told this reporter in private conversations that the success of the profession is often a question of successful lobbying with the Central government, its ministers and the concerned secretaries. They admit that the ICWAI has failed to do it in the past. The institute is now making a deliberate attempt to increase its visibility and has employed professionals for the purpose.

Visibility should not have been a problem for an organisation almost 50 years old, established byan Act of Parliament with thousands of members all over India. Senior members feel that, the low visibility is a pointer to the mismanagement that had crept within ICWAI.

Some members of the institute also lamented that academic, technical and research activities were systematically dismantled. Research and academic directors of the institute were transferred to administrative posts rendering the two departments virtually defunct. A new research director has been appointed recently.

Till recently members of the national council retained their posts for decades at a time and could get re-elected time and again. This, according to members of the present council, had led to the stagnation.

There was a three-year backlog on awarding certificates to successful candidates; often admit cards for examinations would reach after they were over; research activities were at a standstill; the posts of directors for research, examinations and finance remained vacant for years together and the need for a strong andvibrant body of cost and management accountants (as they prefer to call themselves) was not perceived either by industry or the government.

New rules introduced now, restrict members to three, three-year terms. Members-elected president (one year term) of the present council also promise not to contest further elections to the council thereby setting a precedent.

With all the changes happening within the ICWAI and outside what does the future look like?

A P Roy Chowdhury, a senior practising cost accountant says ``The atmosphere is changing. I feel in the coming years it will be the corporate sector and industry that will use the cost accountant to its advantage.''

According to Roy Chowdhury, at the same time statutory functions are increasing and the practising members will also get more business. Some members who had a cost accountancy qualification but were not involved in the profession are now becoming interested by the current turn of events.''Encouraging signs are there for the profession asa whole. As far as prospects go, Das says ``Some of the top cost accountants of the country do earn as much as the best doctors do. You can guess from that.''