Are the Big 4 audit firms still perceived to be the Best audit firms in India or call itself a Top chartered accountant firm in India?

Their clients are well-established corporations, both the public and the private. Elaborating on these reasons:

• Multiple services: These firms offer a myriad of services such as auditing, actuarial, assurance, taxation advisory, management consulting, corporate financing, and legal services. This makes them more preferable by clients since they are a complete package in true sense. This increases their financial power, attracting adroit and diligent employees from everywhere, making them more and more potent at the core.
• Lack of competition: A significant factor that contributes to the impact of the big 4 audit firms is the lack of competitive indigenous audit firms. There is a severe lack of a reliable alternative Indian auditing firm for corporates to consult. Given the current status of the 4 big audit firms where they hold around 60% of the shares in the Indian market collectively.
• Mergers: Business ventures and mergers with several small auditing firms or their acquisition remain the salient tools of their expansion. This is the practice where the affiliate the local or indigenous auditing firms. They simply provide a brand to these firms. This allows those local firms to get a chance to audit global corporations, which otherwise their low status would not have allowed them to.
• Technology: The big four audit firms also provide technology to the local audit firms which agree to merge with them. The technological investment by these giants is crucial for the small scale audit firms to ensure efficiency in work. Thus, mergers seem more lucrative than unaffiliated working. The local audit firms thus can grow rapidly and profit under the brand name while the big four audit firms can eliminate competition. Additionally, the marketing strategies of these firms far exceed those of others.

Statutory Audit firm in Delhi

However, given the plan of the current government to make India more self-reliant, the government is considering to restrict these international giants from having such an immense influence on the market. This would demand a significant upliftment of Indian finance auditing firms. Policymaking would be crucial but not enough. Organization among indigenous firms and assistance from influential Indian corporates are the key factors here. With some of the scams in recent Indian history, the role and the credibility of some of the big accounting firms is being questioned. This is an alarm for the Chartered Accountant’s profession to be ready for a new future and for the Indian firms to upscale themselves with both knowledge and technology. The talent embedded in the smaller firms has never been the issue. It would mean that either they become a multi-disciplinary firm or choose to be a highly specialized firm with a niche in any of the area of their domain expertise.