For the first time, US Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam will be held in India. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) shall be conducting CPA exam in 8 metro cities, in the month of June and September 2020. Until now, the test centres for the exam were only available in the U.S., U.S. island territory, and a few Middle East Asian countries. However, because of the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, AICPA and NASBA have agreed to establish test centres in India as well.
The decision has been made prioritizing the safety of the aspirants. Prometric test centers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Trivandrum will allow candidates to conveniently take the exam, without making any international travel.
The registration for Indian centres started on April 02, 2020. Only that candidate can apply who for it, who is a citizen of India, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, or the U.S. The candidates first need to select any of the 55 US jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction has its eligibility criteria, hence, candidates must first check the requirements and then select the most suitable jurisdiction.
After making the selection, the candidates need to visit nasba.org and apply for US CPA 2020. However, scheduling of the test is to be done from the official website of Prometric, which is prometric.com.
The US CPA exam is held for those finance and accounting enthusiasts who wish to attain a Certified Public Accountant license. The CPA license allows candidates to practice professional accountancy and taxation in the United States of America. To be a CPA, candidates need to fulfil 3E’s, which are Education, Examination, and Experience.
The first step to becoming a licensed CPA, is to qualify the uniform CPA examination. In all, the CPA exam consists of four sections, on auditing and attestation (AUD), business environment and concepts (BEC), financial accounting and reporting (FAR), and regulation (REG). Each section is of four hours and is divided into 5 smaller sections called the testlets.
In all the testlets consists of two types of questions, which are multiple choice and task-based simulations type. Generally, 60% question asked in the exam are MCQ type, whereas, the rest 40% questions are TBS type.
Candidates have to pass all the section within a duration of 18 months. The minimum qualifying marks in the exam is 75, for each part.
India’s prominent CPA training institute, Miles Education says that US CPA exam coming to India brings huge career opportunities for CPA’s, who seek jobs in MNC’s including the Big 4 accounting firms. It is also expected to strengthen the CPA ecosystem by making it more accessible to Indian aspirants.
