ICAI MEF 2026-27 Open Until 29 August: Eligibility, OTP Declaration and Financial Documents CAs Must Check
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) opened the Multipurpose Empanelment Form (MEF) for 2026-27 on 7 August 2026. ICAI's Professional Development Committee (PDC) announced the hosting in its announcement of 7 August 2026, with 29 August 2026 as the original last date for the online form, and published a detailed advisory on eligibility, data, declarations, experience and financial documents.
Last date extended to 9 September 2026
On 28 August 2026, the PDC extended the last date for submitting MEF 2026-27 from 29 August to 9 September 2026. The announcement states that no further extension will be given, because the PDC has to submit the Bank Branch Auditors' Panel to the RBI within the stipulated time. A MEF complaints portal is available on the MEF website for queries.
MEF matters because ICAI shares the information with the RBI, NABARD, CRCS and other authorities for empanelment for professional work. The data entered affects how the applicant is evaluated for later assignments, so it deserves more care than a routine profile update.
Who could file MEF 2026-27
The MEF 2026-27 advisory allows three categories, all tested as on 1 July 2026:
- partnership firms and LLPs in existence on that date;
- proprietary firms in existence on that date; and
- members holding a full-time Certificate of Practice on that date and practising in their individual name.
Filing MEF is the gateway to empanelment, not a promise of audit work. Each auditee or authority can apply its own criteria when it uses the panel.
Login, SSP data and editing
Applicants registered in earlier years use their existing credentials, or reset them through "Forgot Password". First-time applicants must register on the MEF portal before filling the form. ICAI asked members to read the advisory before submitting.
The form has two kinds of fields. Green fields are non-editable and come from ICAI's Self-Service Portal (SSP). White fields are editable and carry forward data from the previous year's MEF. If a green field is wrong, the SSP record has to be corrected for the change to show in MEF. The form can be saved page by page and edited any number of times before final submission, but once submitted it cannot be edited.
OTP declaration
The declaration is validated through a One Time Password sent to the email address and mobile number registered in SSP. In a firm, all partners must validate; proprietors and individual practitioners validate their own. No OTP is needed for a retired or deceased partner if SSP has been updated. If contact details are wrong, update SSP first.
Financial documents for FY 2024-25
| Applicant | Documents to upload |
|---|---|
| Partnership firm (the firm) | Complete ITR in JSON format, ITR acknowledgement (PDF), computation of total income, balance sheet, income and expenditure account |
| Partners of the firm | Complete ITR in JSON format, ITR acknowledgement (PDF), computation of total income |
| Proprietor or member practising individually | Complete ITR in JSON format, ITR acknowledgement (PDF), computation of total income, balance sheet, income and expenditure account |
Applicants who used presumptive taxation under section 44ADA for FY 2024-25 need not submit the balance sheet and income and expenditure account.
Audit experience and continuity of partners
Audit experience counts only where the member signed the audit report. Experience gained as an articled assistant, audit assistant or CA employee is not to be included.
Credit for a partner depends on exclusive association with the applicant firm from 1 July 2026 until the second verification stage, which the advisory places in October or November. The partner must hold a full-time Certificate of Practice, must not have a sole practice or association with another firm, and must not have retired. A partner who retires or dies between 1 July and verification does not earn credit for the firm.
The advisory sets separate parameters for bank-audit experience. Audits of public sector and private sector banks both count, and a year with audits of more than one bank counts as one year. For panels of statutory auditors of State and Central Co-operative Banks, eligible experience is wider and includes commercial banks, urban co-operative banks, NBFCs, all-India financial institutions and regional rural banks.
What applicants should do now
- Keep the final acknowledgement of the submitted MEF.
- Keep SSP details current, because MEF green fields and OTPs depend on them.
- Avoid changes in partner constitution before the verification stage where panel credit matters.
- Watch the MEF portal for draft panels, verification requests and PDC communications.
Updated on 27 September 2026: added ICAI's 28 August 2026 extension of the last date to 9 September 2026 (with no further extension), linked the ICAI announcements and MEF advisory, and verified eligibility, document, OTP and experience rules against the advisory.
