ICAI Releases New Guideline for May 2026 Indirect Tax Examination
ICAI has issued new guidelines for the May 2026 Indirect Tax exam, limiting the syllabus to provisions effective till 31 October 2025
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ( ICAI ) has released new study guidelines for the May 2026 exam of Final Paper 5: Indirect Tax Laws. This will help students to understand what to study and what not to study.
As per the guideline, the exam will cover CGST Act 2017 and IGST Act 2017, updated by Finance Act 2025. Also, Customs Act 1962 and Customs Tariff Act 1975 will be included. But only those changes which are effective till 31 October 2025 will come in the exam.
They also clearly said that some amendments are not included because they are not yet active. So students should not waste time on those topics.
Important topics removed
Some topics are removed from syllabus, mainly in GST part:
- Case studies on tax rates of goods and services and exemptions will not be asked
- Special cases like Kerala Flood Cess is also removed
- Some rules of input tax credit (ITC), specially for real estate and gold dore bar, is not included
- Transitional provisions is also removed from syllabus
But composition scheme rates are still included.
What students should study
Students should only follow September 2025 study material and Statutory Update for May 2026. Any new changes after that is not important unless it is given in update.
This new guideline makes syllabus more clear and less confusing. It helps students to focus only on important topics.
Students should prepare according to this and avoid studying extra things which is not required.
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