Chartered accountant firms can now tie-up with company secretaries, actuaries and cost accountants to offer a whole menu of services.

The government has permitted audit firms to transform themselves into multidisciplinary partnerships (MDPs), with the regulations from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) notified late Friday.

The chartered accountants body has been pushing the government to allow MDPs, which are expected to boost the accounting and auditing ecosystem, for the past 15 years.

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CA firms will also be able to bring on engineers, architects and lawyers as partners, subject to the approval of the Bar Council.

According to experts, apart from allowing the big firms to grow further, the move is likely to benefit small and medium firms to scale up and offer a variety of services under one roof while building capacity in the industry.

Corporates, especially large banks, prefer audit firms that are capable of providing multiple services. Audit firms would have to build domestic capacity first before looking beyond borders as the current MDP framework does not enable Indian firms to go global.