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CHENNAI: At a time when placements at premier engineering and management institutes such as IIT and IIMs are scaling new heights, the highest salary for chartered accountants posted a marginal increase to 24 lakh for an international posting.

However, the highest salary offered for a domestic posting in the campus placements of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) was 17 lakh, a drop from the 21 lakh recorded during the previous placement season in March.

ITC offered the highest domestic salary while Alghanim Industries offered the highest salary for international posting.

A total of 952 chartered accountants (CAs) landed jobs, recording a 40% increase over March. The total number of CAs who sat for placements was not revealed. The average salary levels for CAs at campus placement has remained stable at nearly 7 lakh a year for the past two years.

In all, 86 companies, including TCS, Federal bank, ITC, Cairn and Barclays, visited the campus this time as against 80 in March.

"Chartered Accountants today are technically equipped to act as management consultants and play a vital role in assisting business and industry to improve the use of their resources, increase their efficiency and achieve their objectives. The breadth of management advisory services rendered reflect their expertise in diverse areas," K Raghu, president of ICAI, said in a statement.

While the accountants clearing the course have numerous paths to choose, the route to employment is either through placement programmes organized by ICAI or through off-campus placements.

They also have the option to obtain a Certificate of Practice (COP) and practice on their own.

Ashok Reddy, managing director and co-founder of TeamLease, a staffing firm, said, "The CA profession is such that, the pick-up in salary levels is much faster than other professional courses. Their value increases with the experience they gain," he said.

HR practitioners say that finance being a crucial department in all business entities, CAs have numerous sectors including banking, financial services, manufacturing, IT, telecom and infrastructure open to them. The ICAI organises campus placement for the qualified CAs twice in a year.

The candidates are given two chances to meet the companies by opting for two centres.

The candidates who opt for smaller centres as their first choice and fail to land a job, can take a second shot at placements by registering for bigger centres which are Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi.