CMA Intermediate December 2026

The rules below are from the CMA Prospectus 2025, the latest edition linked on ICMAI's student pages; the December 2026 time table adds no new conditions.

Criterion	Requirement
Qualification for registration	Passed 10+2 and ICMAI's Foundation course; or the Foundation (Entry Level) Part I exam of ICMAI's CAT course; or a degree of a recognised university in any subject other than music, dancing, photography, painting, sculpture and the like; or a qualified engineer or equivalent
Direct entry	Graduates of any discipline, engineering students who have completed the 3rd year or Semester VI, and the other qualifications in Annexure VIII of the prospectus can register without Foundation
Registration timing	Completed at least four months before the exam; cut-off 31 July for the December term and 31 January for the June term
Training	Valid registration number and the prescribed Intermediate training completed (the prospectus lists 120 hours of skills training at Intermediate level)
Validity	Registration is valid for 7 years; after that a de novo registration (Rs 5,000) is needed

• Provisional registration: graduates awaiting results can register provisionally and must submit the pass result within 18 months.
• Reciprocal exemption: qualified Company Secretaries (ICSI) are exempt from Paper 7 and Paper 10 (fee Rs 1,000 per paper; apply online at least 60 days before the exam).
• Paper exemptions for LLB and engineering qualifications are also listed in the prospectus.

Source: CMA Prospectus 2025 (2025 edition, the latest linked for the December 2026 term).

The December 2026 Intermediate exam is held offline at centres from 10 to 17 December 2026, with one 3-hour paper a day from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm IST. Group I and Group II papers fall on alternate days.

Group	Paper	Subject	Marks	Exam date
I	5	Business Laws and Ethics	100	10 December 2026
I	6	Financial Accounting	100	12 December 2026
I	7	Direct and Indirect Taxation	100	14 December 2026
I	8	Cost Accounting	100	16 December 2026
II	9	Operations Management and Strategic Management	100	11 December 2026
II	10	Corporate Accounting and Auditing	100	13 December 2026
II	11	Financial Management and Business Data Analytics	100	15 December 2026
II	12	Management Accounting	100	17 December 2026

• Marks: 100 per paper, 800 for all eight papers; a candidate can apply for one group or both.
• Passing a group: at least 40% marks in each paper of the group and 50% of the total marks of its non-exempted papers. For both groups taken together: 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate.
• Exemption: a candidate who fails a group but scores 60% or more in a paper is exempt in that paper; the benefit runs for the next three terms and is lost if the candidate appears in the paper again.
• Language: candidates may opt to answer in Hindi.

Source: Intermediate and Final time table, December 2026; CMA Prospectus 2025 (standard of pass and exemption rules); CMA Syllabus 2022.

Group I, Paper 5: Business Laws and Ethics

• Commercial laws (30%): legal system in India; Indian Contracts Act, 1872; Sale of Goods Act, 1930; Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881; Indian Partnership Act, 1932; Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008
• Industrial laws (15%): Factories Act, 1948; Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972; EPF and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; ESI Act, 1948; Code on Wages, 2019
• Corporate laws (40%): Companies Act, 2013; business ethics and emotional intelligence (15%)

Group I, Paper 6: Financial Accounting

• Accounting fundamentals (15%); bills of exchange, consignment and joint venture (10%); final accounts of commercial and not-for-profit organisations and from incomplete records (20%)
• Partnership accounting (20%); lease, branch and departmental accounts, insurance claims, hire purchase and instalment sales (15%); accounting standards (20%)

Group I, Paper 7: Direct and Indirect Taxation

• Direct taxation (50%): basics of the Income Tax Act; heads of income; total income and tax liability of individuals and HUF
• Indirect taxation (50%): concept of indirect taxes; GST laws (35%); Customs Act and Rules (10%)

Group I, Paper 8: Cost Accounting

• Introduction to cost accounting (40%): cost ascertainment and elements of cost; Cost Accounting Standards (CAS 1 to CAS 24); cost book keeping
• Methods of costing (30%); cost accounting techniques (30%)

Group II, Paper 9: Operations Management and Strategic Management

• Operations management (60%): operations planning; design of operational systems and control; operations research in production planning and control (20%); productivity and quality management; project management (15%); maintenance and spares
• Strategic management (40%): introduction; strategic analysis and planning; formulation and implementation of strategy; digital strategy

Group II, Paper 10: Corporate Accounting and Auditing

• Corporate accounting (50%): shares and debentures; statement of profit and loss and balance sheet as per Schedule III of the Companies Act, 2013; cash flow statement; banking, electricity and insurance company accounts; accounting standards
• Auditing (50%): basic concepts; audit provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 (30%); auditing of different types of undertakings

Group II, Paper 11: Financial Management and Business Data Analytics

• Financial management (80%): fundamentals; financial market institutions and instruments; tools for financial analysis; sources of finance and cost of capital; capital budgeting; working capital management; financing decisions
• Business data analytics (20%): data science for business decisions; data processing, cleaning and validation; data visualisation; data analysis and modelling

Group II, Paper 12: Management Accounting

• Introduction (5%); activity based costing (10%); decision-making tools (30%): marginal costing, its short-term decision applications, transfer pricing; standard costing and variance analysis (15%)
• Forecasting, budgeting and budgetary control (15%); divisional performance measurement (10%); responsibility accounting (5%); decision theory (10%)

Source: CMA Syllabus 2022 (in force from the June 2023 term); section weights are as printed in the syllabus.