Sibal for more transparency in accounts of political parties

Law and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today asked accounting professionals to make optimum use of their abilities and enhance transparency in all accounts including those of political parties.
"Accountants should be at the forefront of every vocation because accounts in a sense connect all vocations. You need accounts of political parties... Which are non-transparent. We need to make them transparent," Sibal said at annual event of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
He said that there are malpractices in corporate sector and only accountants "can resolve some of those issues."
The Minister said that now there are international accounting standards which all businesses in India should also adopt.

He asked accounting professionals to look at increased use of technology for expanding their horizons.
"It is time for accountants to recognise that and set up bodies within ICAI to look at different vocations and see what are the needs of accounting standards in those separate vocations.

"So, when a consumer looks at those separate vocations, then the information that is given to him/her is ...Pure," he said.
Sibal cited the example of educational institutions where service in the institute may be provided by people related to the management and that could lead to siphoning of funds.
"I remember when I was Minister in HRD (Human Resource Development) I invited the ICAI...I said we need special accounting standards for educational institutions," he said.

Sibal said the ICAI should work closely with IT Ministry to explore opportunities in the field of accounting with the help of technology.
Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan said: "The Indian accounting profession has a long and distinguished history of guarding the integrity of financial statements and supporting the government.
He expressed confidence that the profession will live up to the expectations of stakeholders in times to come.