Converged IFRS notified, implementation deferred

The government on Friday notified International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)-converged accounting standards, but said the date of implementation is to be fixed after tax issues are resolved, practically saying implementation has been delayed.
DNA had reported on February 14 that the implementation will be delayed.

“Thirty five Indian Accounting Standards converged with International Financial Reporting Standards (henceforth called IND AS) are being notified by the ministry and placed on the website,” the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said on Thursday.
G Ramaswamy, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, said ICAI is fully prepared to implement IFRS.

“Members have been trained, continuous updates have been given to members and industry programmes have been organised. The 37 IFRS standards that were supposed to be implemented from April 1, have been prepared by ICAI. The postponement is a decision of the government and we have nothing to say on it.”

The ministry will implement the IFRS converged Indian Accounting Standards in a phased manner after various issues including tax related issues are resolved with the concerned departments, the release said.

IFRS on agriculture financial instruments and retirement benefits is to be notified later.

The government has deferred implementation of notification of International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) 4 and 12.   

Implementation of IFRS is expected to reduce capital costs of Indian companies and help them expand internationally.
“India Inc can still seek changes to IFRS,” RPN Singh, minister of state for corporate affairs said.

Charanjit Attra, CFO of ICICI Securities, said the notification of the standards is a welcome step towards implementation of IFRS in India, nevertheless. “We would expect the changes to the tax laws to be done at the earliest so that IFRS can be implemented fully,” he said.

Keki Mistry, vice-chairman of HDFC, said IFRS is good since it will bring India in sync with international standards, but there needs to be some deviation to suit Indian regulatory environment.