Govt sets to adopt new accounting standards by 2011

The government today reiterated its commitment to converge Indian accounting norms with the international standards by 2011 and said it has the industry's support on the same.

"We stand by our commitment to converge the Indian accounting norms with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and have synchronised the views of all stakeholders," Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs R Bandyopadhay said at a CII event here.

However, experts say the preparedness in the country for the convergence with IFRS is low.

"The current level of preparedness within the country for implementing IFRS is low and ICAI recognises the urgent and pressing need to create a resource pool of professionals to manage the conversion..." said global financial consultancy firm KPMG.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Deputy Director S P Chakraborty said, "The first challenge is to see that all related notifications for different regulators, ie, RBI, IRDA, etc, is brought together, so that there is clarity."

As Indian companies go global, experts say, convergence with IFRS would eliminate the need for multiple reporting in most cases as the same set of financial statements can be used for reporting at the entity and the consolidated level.

Many countries like the US, China, Brazil, South Korea and Canada have announced their intention to adopt the IFRS.