RBI gives banks one more year to adopt Indian Accounting Standards

The Reserve Bank on Thursday deferred the implementation of the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) by one year as many banks are not prepared to migrate to the new accounting system.

The earlier deadline for banks to switch to the Ind AS was from April 1 2018.

"Ind AS was to be implemented from this year. As part of this, we've also been requiring banks to submit half-yearly returns based in Ind AS format. But our assessment is that many banks are still not prepared to move to Ind AS.

"So, we thought that we should defer this by one year and by when the preparedness and amendments to the schedule to the act are also there," deputy governor NS Vishwanathan during the customary post-policy presser.

Explaining the rationale for the extension, the deputy governor said the format of the financial statements as prescribed in the Third Schedule of the Banking Regulation Act which is not amenable for reporting financial statements under Ind AS, and, therefore, we have requested government to amend the Schedule and that is under consideration.

He, however, said RBI will continue to have the proforma of financial statements from banks to monitor the progress lenders are making towards migration to Ind-AS.

At today's monetary-policy, the RBI left repo rate unchanged at 6 per cent.