CMA Course Details: Levels, Eligibility, Fees, Exams and Training

What is the CMA course?

CMA stands for Cost and Management Accountant. The course covers cost and management accounting, financial reporting, tax, law and strategy, and it is the route into the cost accountancy profession, which ICMAI regulates.

ICMAI is a statutory body, set up on 28 May 1959 under the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959, and it works under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It was called the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) until Parliament recognised its present name from 1 February 2012, so older references to ICWA mean this course. ICMAI's prospectus also states that the University Grants Commission has recognised the CMA qualification as equivalent to a postgraduate degree.

CMA India is not the US CMA. The US CMA is the Certified Management Accountant credential of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), a different body. This guide covers ICMAI's course in India.

CMA course details at a glance

Source: ICMAI's CMA Prospectus 2025 and its fee table (Annexure IX). Fees are payable subject to GST where it applies.

Who can join, and at which level

• Foundation. Admission opens once you pass Class 10. It stays provisional until you pass Class 12: ICMAI allows 36 months for the switch to regular status, and your Class 12 mark sheet has to be submitted before you apply for the Foundation exam.
• Intermediate. The usual route is Class 12 plus a pass in CMA Foundation. Graduates can skip Foundation, provided the degree is not in music, dancing, photography, painting, sculpture or a similar art; so can qualified engineers and anyone who has passed CA Intermediate or one of the other exams ICMAI lists. Students awaiting their degree result may register provisionally, with 18 months to produce the pass result.
• Final. Enrolment is open once both Intermediate groups are cleared.

ICMAI's criteria ask only that you have passed the qualifying exam; they set no minimum marks. The complete list of qualifying exams, and how ICMAI treats engineering students, is in our guide to CMA eligibility after 12th and direct entry.

Subjects at each level

The current syllabus is Syllabus 2022. ICMAI built it around four knowledge pillars: management, strategy, regulatory framework and financial reporting, and each paper carries 100 marks (Curriculum 2022).

• Foundation: business laws and business communication; financial and cost accounting; business mathematics and statistics; business economics and management.
• Intermediate Group I: business laws and ethics; financial accounting; direct and indirect taxation; cost accounting.
• Intermediate Group II: operations management and strategic management; corporate accounting and auditing; financial management and business data analytics; management accounting.
• Final Group III: corporate and economic laws; strategic financial management; direct tax laws and international taxation; strategic cost management.
• Final Group IV: cost and management audit; corporate financial reporting; indirect tax laws and practice; and one elective you choose when you enrol for Final: strategic performance management and business valuation, risk management in banking and insurance, or entrepreneurship and start-up.

The exact paper titles and numbers, with ICMAI's pass and exemption rules, are in our guide to CMA exams.

How to register for the CMA course

You join ICMAI once for each level. It calls this admission at Foundation, registration at Intermediate and enrolment at Final. Apply online through ICMAI's student portal, or on paper at a regional council, chapter or CMA Support Centre, no later than four months before your exam:

The window for the December 2026 exams is over. On 6 October 2026 the portal was accepting applications at every level for the June 2027 term, whose prospectus deadline is 31 January 2027. Expect your Identification or Registration Number only once the payment has been realised and ICMAI's Directorate of Studies has checked your documents.

The online steps and the documents to upload are explained in our guide to CMA registration.

CMA course fees

You pay ICMAI a course fee once per level, which covers its compulsory coaching and study material, and an exam fee each time you apply for an exam (amounts in the table above).

• Instalments. At Intermediate you can pay ₹12,000 when you register and ₹11,100 later; at Final, ₹15,000 when you enrol and ₹10,000 later. The second instalment must be paid by 31 January for a June exam or 31 July for a December exam, and without it you cannot sit the exam.
• What is included. The Intermediate fee has the ₹500 student registration fee built in. Postal (e-learning) and oral coaching cost the same.
• Other charges and refunds. Registering your practical training costs ₹2,500. Once you have been admitted, registered or enrolled, the course fee is not refundable.

If you pass every level at the first attempt and write both groups together, ICMAI's course and exam fees add up to ₹61,600, or ₹54,100 if you enter at Intermediate (our total of the prospectus figures, before GST). For the full list of ICMAI charges, see CMA course fees.

CMA exams: terms, format and pass marks

All three levels are examined twice a year, in a June term and a December term. Registering for a level does not enter you for an exam: you fill in an online exam form every term. Without a late fee, forms are due by 10 April for the June term and 10 October for December (CMA Prospectus 2025).

Source: ICMAI's December 2026 time tables. At Intermediate and Final you may opt to answer in Hindi, but answer scripts that mix English and Hindi are liable to be cancelled (CMA Prospectus 2025). Check the notice for your own term, as ICMAI can change the pattern.

December 2026 term. The Foundation exam is on Sunday, 13 December 2026. Intermediate (2 pm to 5 pm) and Final (10 am to 1 pm) run from 10 to 17 December 2026, with the two groups of each level on alternate days. Exam forms close on 10 October 2026 for Intermediate and Final and on 14 October 2026 for Foundation, or a week later in each case with a ₹500 late fee. ICMAI expects to publish results by 7 January 2027 (Foundation) and 5 February 2027 (Intermediate and Final).

Pass marks. At Foundation you need at least 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate. At Intermediate and Final you pass a group with 40% in each paper and 50% in aggregate of that group; if you write both groups together, the 50% aggregate is taken across both. If you fail a group but score 60% or more in a paper, that paper is exempted for the next three exam terms. The exemption does not apply at Foundation.

Coaching, training and where to study

Coaching is compulsory at every level. When you join, you pick one of two modes: postal coaching (e-learning), or classes at a regional council, chapter, recognised oral coaching centre or accredited institution (oral coaching). Oral coaching for Foundation, or for each group of Intermediate or Final, runs for 4 months with at least 240 lecture hours of 45 minutes, and the centre holds a 3-hour test in each subject (ICMAI, Course Duration & Delivery).

ICMAI has 4 regional councils, at Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai, and 112 chapters. In the south, for example, the Southern India Regional Council is at CMA Bhawan, 4 Montieth Lane, Egmore, Chennai. Telangana has chapters at Hyderabad, Sathavahana and Warangal, and Kerala at Cochin, Kottayam, Kozhikode-Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Trivandrum (CMA Prospectus 2025, Annexure XVI). ICMAI's Chapters page lists the rest by region.

Training is part of the course:

• Intermediate: 120 hours of Skills Training in accounting software such as Tally or another ERP, office software, e-filing, and communication and soft skills. If you pay by instalments, you become eligible for it after the second one, and its assessment test must be cleared before you can write both groups or your last remaining group.
• Final: 80 hours of Skills Training (an ERP such as SAP, and business or data analytics) and the 10-day Industry Oriented Training Programme (IOTP), which has to be finished before you submit the exam form for both groups or your last group.
• Practical training: 15 months, which can begin the moment you register for Intermediate. You train with a practising cost accountant or a firm of cost accountants, or in a government body, bank, insurer, public sector undertaking, university or other organisation ICMAI recognises. CA or CS articleship does not count towards it.

ICMAI's documents differ on when the 15 months must be complete. The prospectus's training page says before you appear for Final. Its practical training scheme (Annexure VII) and its circular of 12 September 2024 let you sit Final with 10 months or more certified as at 28/29 February for a June exam or 31 August for a December exam, as long as all 15 months are done before ICMAI declares your Final result.

How long the CMA course takes

ICMAI's prospectus does not give a single course duration. Your pace depends on these rules:

• each level ends with an exam in June or December, and you must join the level at least four months before it;
• the term immediately after your Intermediate pass is too early for Final (ICMAI's example: pass in December, and the following June is ruled out);
• you need at least 10 months of practical training to sit Final.

Read together, the quickest route for a graduate is about a year and a half from Intermediate registration to the Final exam: register by 31 January 2027 and start practical training straight away, pass Intermediate in June 2027 and take Final in June 2028. Starting at Foundation adds at least one more exam term, and every group you have to repeat adds another. This timeline is our reading of ICMAI's rules, not a figure ICMAI publishes.

After the course: membership and careers

Passing Final does not make you a member straight away. You can apply for Associate membership (ACMA) once you also have at least three years of practical experience in costing or industrial accounting in a responsible position. The experience can come before or after the Final exam, and ICMAI counts your practical training period towards it. To practise as a Cost Accountant, you also need ICMAI's Certificate of Practice, which costs ₹2,000 plus GST and is renewed every year.

ICMAI's prospectus says CMAs work in government, private companies, banking and finance, development agencies, education and research, and public utilities, often in senior posts such as finance director, chief financial officer, cost controller and chief internal auditor. Some work is reserved for the profession: under the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules, 2014, only cost accountants can be appointed as cost auditors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the CMA course fee lower at a government college?

No. The CMA course is not a college degree: you register with ICMAI, whose fee table has a single rate for students in India, and oral coaching at a regional council, chapter or recognised oral coaching centre costs the same as postal coaching. Anything a college or private institute charges for its own classes is separate from ICMAI's fees.