Cost Accountant Certificates: Permitted Work and Legal Limits

Several laws ask for a certificate from a professional and name a Cost Accountant in practice among those who can give it. This page lists the ones with a clear legal basis, and is plain about the ones a Cost Accountant cannot sign.

Certificates with a clear legal basis

GST

GST law names a Cost Accountant alongside a Chartered Accountant for these.

• Refund claims above ₹2 lakh: the certificate that the tax has not been passed on to anyone else (Rule 89)
• Input credit claimed on stock when a business becomes liable to GST or changes scheme, where the claim is above ₹2 lakh (Rule 40)
• A special audit ordered by the tax officer, where the Commissioner nominates the auditor (Section 66)

Cost of production

Where goods move between branches or related parties and no market price is available, the goods can be valued for GST at 110% of the cost of production.

• A cost of production certificate prepared under Cost Accounting Standard 4
• Cost statements for pricing, tenders and price-revision claims

Company law

Cost audit is reserved for Cost Accountants in practice.

• The cost audit report in Form CRA-3
• Certification of some company e-forms that accept any practising professional

Foreign trade

The Handbook of Procedures accepts a Cost Accountant's certificate in several appendices.

• The certificate for issue of an EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods) authorisation (Appendix 5B)
• The consumption and stock register certificate (Appendix 4H) for Advance Authorisation and DFIA (Duty Free Import Authorisation)

What a Cost Accountant does not sign

• The tax audit report under the Income-tax Act: the law reserves it for a Chartered Accountant.
• The company's annual return certificate (MGT-7): that is a Company Secretary's.
• Some foreign trade appendices that name only a Chartered Accountant.

Other certificates, such as a net worth or turnover certificate, depend on what the authority asking for it will accept. Check with the bank or department before you commission one.

Stock and receivables audits for banks

Banks appoint stock auditors from their own panels, and many of those panels include Cost Accountants. The bank chooses the auditor, not the borrower.

UDIN: how to check a certificate is genuine

Since 1 October 2019, every certificate and report issued by a Cost Accountant in practice has to carry a Unique Document Identification Number generated on the Institute's portal. Anyone who receives the certificate can verify the number there.

Laws

The CGST Act and Rules, the Companies Act, 2013, the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 and the Income-tax Act, 2025.

The forms and who may sign them are changed by notification.

A certificate states what was examined and what was found. It is issued only after the records support it.

Opens a short definition