Diffrence between Indian Cost & Works Accountants and Company Secretary

[Sandeep]

Can someone specify me that what is the diffrence between Indian Cost & Works Accountants and Company Secretary. In both which one is easier and if we are working which course I opt for.

• Please let me know what are the roles & Responsibilties of Company Secretary.
• Is Company Secretary are equalent to IAS or Gazetted officer (Grade A Officer)

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[CopyCat]

ICWAI vs CS

There are a couple of professional institues. I would point three here.
ICAI - Institute of Chartered Accountants of India - Responsible for maintaining accounts and also filing with RCA (Registrar fo Companies)
ICWAI - Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India - Responsible for cost accountancy - usually manufacturing companies
ICSI - Institute of Company Secretaries of India - Responsible that the company adheres to The Companies Act, 1956

As a CA maintaines financial accounts of a company, a CS needs to make sure that whatever a company does is in accordance with The Comapnies Act. As a CA audits financial accounts, CS audits companies in accordance with The Comapnies Act.

If you talk about the easy thing, in my opinion, ICWAI is easier than CS or CA, CS being the toughest of all.
You will find 100s of thousands of CAs in India but only a couple CS'.
CS works with the top management of a company and no company dares to keep him unhappy. :-)

ICWAI is easier but if you want to directly land in the cockpit ... head towards ICSI.

IAS or Gazetted officers are class officers of the GOI or maybe State Governments. It is not necessary that a CS or ICWAI or CA will work for them. But if you get a government job after clearing these courses, you may.

PS: You need to forget everything else if you are heading towards ICSI.

[Expert]

I advise you to go for CWA which is easy when compared to Company Secretary (CS) and arguably, CS is the most difficult comparatively with Costs & Works Accountant (CWA) and Chartered Accountant (CA). For CS, there is a 15 month mandatory Articleship which has to be completed in order to get the eligibility for the Final exams and for CWA, no articleship exists. FYI...for CA, the articleship is 3 years.

Articleship means either
1) you need to work under a practising CS as an Articled clerk
or
2) Work under a CS in any listed company.

Approx time for completion:
CWA - atleast 1 year for passing Inter and another 1 year for final = 2 years
CS - atleast 1 year for Inter and 15 months on articleship and another 1 year for final (if cleared all the exams in the 1st attempt which will be unlikely) = 3.3 years
CA - atleast 1 year for Inter and then 3 years on articleship and another 1 year for final (if cleared all the exams in the 1st attempt which will be unlikely)= 5 years

Also, the pass percentage for both CS and CA in the country is 2% where as for CWA it is slightly higher.

A CA or CS can easily get a job with atleast completion of Inter (half the course) where as a CWA don't have that provision.

Also, career wise, a CS or a CA can either
1) Go for his own practice after getting the Certificate of Practice
or
2) Work in any company (as per the Indian Companies Act, every Listed company in India should have a full time COMPANY SECRETARY in their payrolls)
Where as a CWA is always suppose to work only in the Manufacturing Sector.

A CS holds the highest position in any company and is the master of Companies Act, Business Laws, Income Tax Act, Sales Tax and VAT, Corporate Governance etc and is the only person who liaises with the SEBI and the Registrar of Companies where as a CA takes care of only the Accounting procedures. Also a CS with a Law Degree will add more value.

Obviously if a CS or CA chooses a govt job (though not many are preferring these days as Private sector is offering lucrative pay), he will definitely be in a higher grade but not certainly in the ranks of an IAS and honestly these 2 cannot be compared.

Note : The above said professional courses are recommended to be taken up by only those who are good at their academics right throughout . If given up in the middle, it leads to lot of time wastage.

You can always reach me for more questions or guidance.