Chitale to replace Malegam as accounting standards body chief

The National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (Nacas), the country's apex body in this regard, has been re-constituted. M M Chitale, veteran chartered accountant, will take charge as chairman in February from Y H Malegam.

Indian accounting standards are in the process of being tweaked to converge with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Institute of Chartered Accountants India (ICAI) has formulated a ‘ converged-IFRS ’, a proposal that will merge the accounting standards to meet the IFRS stipulations and the timeline of their application to Nacas.

The proposal now awaits Nacas’ nod. Under Malegam, the committee had advised the government to defer implementation of AS-11, an important tax regime, to 2011. This is the accounting standard on mark-to-market provisioning in corporate profit and loss accounts for foreign exchange-related gains and losses. When Business Standard spoke to Chitale, he declined comment on the issue before taking charge.

Chitale has been practising for 38 years and heads an independent CA firm, Mukund M Chitale & Co. He is on the board of many reputed companies, including Larsen & Toubro, Sriram Transport Finance and L&T General Insurance, as an independent director.

Other key members who have joined Nacas with Chitale include P R Ravi Mohan (Reserve Bank of India), Usha Narayayan (executive director, Securities & Exchange Board of India), G Ramaswamy (ICAI) Anil Murarka (Institute of Company Secretaries of India), Brij Mohan Sharma (Institute of Costs and Works Accountants of India), Sarit Jafa (principal director, commercial audit, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India), Sunil Gupta (joint secretary, ministry of finance, nominee of the Central Board of Direct Taxes), Ashok Haldia (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), S Santhanakrishnan (Confederation of Indian Industry), Renuka Kumar (joint secretary, ministry of corporate affairs) and a nominee from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

The new team, with Chitale, will hold office till January 31, 2012.