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Commerce route

Cost and Management Accountant (CMA)

You work out what things actually cost a company to make — and therefore what it can afford to charge, and where it is quietly losing money.

First question

What does this person do?

A chartered accountant mostly looks backwards and outwards, certifying accounts for the outside world. A cost and management accountant mostly looks inwards and forwards. You break down what a single unit of a product costs to produce once you count materials, labour, machine time, electricity and overheads, and you tell management which products and which factories are actually making money.

You build the budget the business runs on, then explain every month why reality differed from it. In regulated industries and in many manufacturing companies, Indian law requires a formal cost audit, and only a CMA can sign it. Most CMAs work in manufacturing, power, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and in public sector undertakings, rather than in audit firms.

Next question

What are they paid?

LPA = lakhs per annum; ₹1 lakh = ₹100,000. These are broad India market estimates across common employers and work settings—not guaranteed offers, audited statistics or the ceiling. References give context, not proof of each exact band. Historical anchors and evidence gaps remain in Sources.

  1. Entry first role

    Estimated range₹5.0–10LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Manufacturing finance, FP&A, costing, consulting and public-sector roles are combined.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹7.5 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

  2. Mid about 5 years in

    Estimated range₹10–20LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Manufacturing finance, FP&A, costing, consulting and public-sector roles are combined.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹16 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

  3. Senior about 10 years in

    Estimated range₹18–35LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Manufacturing finance, FP&A, costing, consulting and public-sector roles are combined.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹27 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

The vertical line marks the midpoint median of the editorial estimates for this stream. Published examples are excluded. Scale: ₹ lakhs per annum.

Hiring landscape

Who hires for this work?

Examples of large employers and institutions associated with this route in India:

  • NTPC
  • Indian Oil
  • Tata Steel
  • Deloitte

Examples, not a ranking or a promise of a current vacancy. Hiring changes; check the employer’s own careers page.

What it takes to get in

Entrance exam
CMA Foundation, then CMA Intermediate, then CMA Final — all set by ICMAI (The Institute of Cost Accountants of India)
Realistic cut-off
No rank or percentile. You can register for the Foundation Course after Class 10 and sit it after passing Class 12. Graduates skip the Foundation and enter the Intermediate Course directly, as do engineering students who have finished their second year. The filter is passing three levels of exams and completing 15 months of full-time practical training.
How long
3.5 years
Roughly what it costs

Not stated as a single figure

ICMAI publishes its full fee schedule as a scanned PDF on icmai.in which could not be read reliably at the time this was compiled, so no total is stated here rather than a wrong one. What is confirmed on ICMAI's own admission page is that the prospectus costs Rs 250. Course fees for the three levels are widely reported to run to a few tens of thousands of rupees in total, in the same range as the CA and CS courses, but this could not be verified from the source and should be checked directly with ICMAI.

Approximate, tuition only, excluding coaching and living costs unless the source text says otherwise.

Can you switch out later?
Moderate. Like CA and CS, the exams are self-study and are commonly taken alongside a BCom, so you keep a degree. The 15 months of practical training is full-time. Qualified CMAs move fairly freely into general finance, costing, pricing, internal audit and public sector finance roles; the qualification is strongest in manufacturing and in public sector undertakings and less recognised in banking and consulting than CA.

Delhi entry paths

These are the routes people in Delhi commonly take into this career. This is not a ranking of institutions and does not list cut-offs for any particular college.

  • Register with ICMAI for the Foundation Course after Class 12 — no college admission or entrance rank
  • ICMAI's Northern India Regional Council is in Delhi and runs oral coaching batches; the Delhi centre is one of the venues for ICMAI's national campus placement programme
  • Many students take a BCom at a Delhi University college, or through DU SOL or IGNOU, and enter the CMA Intermediate directly on the strength of the degree, skipping the Foundation
  • The 15 months of practical training can be served in a company, a public sector undertaking, a bank or with a practising cost accountant — Delhi NCR has the head offices of several central public sector undertakings that qualify

How this compares

Nearby routes in Commerce, ordered by mid-career pay. Ordering is not a recommendation.
RouteEntryMidSenior
Financial planning and wealth management₹3.0–8.0 LPA₹7.0–18 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Company Secretary (CS)₹4.0–8.0 LPA₹8.0–18 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Economics degree (policy, research and financial regulation)₹4.0–10 LPA₹8.0–20 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Cost and Management Accountant (CMA) (this route)₹5.0–10 LPA₹10–20 LPA₹18–35 LPA
Running a business (entrepreneurship and family business)₹0.0–12 LPA₹0.0–30 LPA₹0.0–60 LPA
Insurance officer (life and general insurance)₹7.0–13 LPA₹11–20 LPA₹17–30 LPA

See all 57 routes side by side →

Sources

  1. Institute of Cost Accountants of India icmai.in

    2026-08-17: ICMAI official course eligibility page: Foundation Course entry after Class 10 or 10+2; Intermediate entry after 10+2 plus Foundation, or with a degree from a recognised university, or after the second year of an engineering course; and the exemptions for ICAI and ICSI qualification holders.

  2. Institute of Cost Accountants of India icmai.in · may be dated

    2020-02-11: ICMAI New Practical Training Scheme 2020: students registering for the Intermediate Course on or after 11 February 2020 must complete 15 months of full-time practical training before the Final result is declared, at 35 hours a week.

  3. Institute of Cost Accountants of India icmai.in

    2026-08-17: ICMAI official page on course duration and delivery: oral coaching runs four months per group with a minimum of 240 lecture hours, and enrolment must be at least four months before the examination month.

  4. Institute of Cost Accountants of India icmai.in

    2026-08-17: ICMAI official student admission page: cost of prospectus Rs 250, admission deadlines of 31 January for the June examination and 31 July for the December examination, and the link to the institute's fee schedule.

  5. Institute of Cost Accountants of India icmai.in

    2026-08-17: ICMAI's official campus placement schedule for April-May 2026, listing recruiters, job descriptions and shortlisted candidates across six cities and containing no salary or CTC figures — the basis for marking all three pay rungs unknown. 2026-08-17: Historical evidence gap for the entry rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: ICMAI runs a national campus placement programme and publishes the schedule, the recruiters and the shortlists, but it publishes no salary figures at all — the current placement pages carry none, and the older placement report it used to link is no longer available. Figures of 'Rs 8-10 lakh average' circulate widely on coaching and content sites with no traceable source behind them, so none is repeated here. 2026-08-17: Historical evidence gap for the mid rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: No professional body, employer group or government source publishes what a CMA with about five years of experience earns. The salary sites that appear to are self-reported and are excluded from this project. 2026-08-17: Historical evidence gap for the senior rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: As above. Claims that senior CMAs reach Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore appear on coaching-institute pages with no source and describe, at best, a handful of chief-financial-officer appointments rather than a ten-year figure.

  6. AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com

    2026-08-21: Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Manufacturing finance, FP&A, costing, consulting and public-sector roles are combined.