Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the professional body for accounting professionals in the country, has once again got a chartered accountant from the city as its chief. Jaideep Shah, a practising CA since last 24 years, has taken over as the ICAI president after being the vice-president.

As a rule after being elected vice-president in ICAI, the incumbent is directly promoted to being the president, a post held for a year. In 2003, Ashok Chandak an, expert in indirect taxation had become the ICAI president.

Shah takes over at a crucial juncture especially when the profession's image has taken a beating due to the alleged involvement of auditors in Satyam Computers' fraud.

His taking over coincides with a decision to ban a senior auditor engaged by company for lifetime. At the same time, the institute also written to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the company that audited Satyam's account, asking details about the Rs 200 crore alleged undisclosed income found in its entities. Shah evaded an answer on the topic during his Nagpur visit.

Talking to newspersons on his first visit to the city after taking charge, Shah said he was also a member of the committee on black money, which is suggesting the government on measures to plug its outflow from the country. Since CAs have an expertise in taxation treaties, ICAI is studying the double taxation pacts India has with different countries.

He said the laws would be studied minutely after which measures would be suggested to prevent stashing of unaccounted wealth abroad. However, a guarded Shah preferred not to go on record about the CBI's recent estimate of Rs 24 lakh crore black money stashed abroad.

Shah, who spelt out plans to set up centres of excellence in various branches, said one had been planned for the city also. The finance committee in ICAI had approved the proposal to have a centre of excellence in Nagpur and now land was being scouted for the project. A centre of excellence provides a facility for training and research.

He also announced a host of social responsibility measures like blood donation camps and efforts on environmental conservation.

About other developments, he said ICAI had also suggested a system of accounting for political parties which would lead to a better disclosure of assets held by them.

ICAI has also mooted a proposal to audit the parties' accounts, he said.