The Central Government will the notify adoption of the proposed Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS), the converged Indian version of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), by March. The Ind AS will come into effect for the first time in 2016-17 Indian corporate balance sheets. Stock exchange listed companies with networth of over Rs. 500 crore are obligated to follow Ind AS in the first year.

"The notification for Ind AS is going to happen within a month," AS Bhatia, Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, told reporters here on Friday on the sidelines of a CII-organised event.

According to the roll-out roadmap, in the second year, the Ind AS will be applicable to all listed companies and unlisted companies having net worth of over Rs. 500 crore. The third year will see unlisted companies having net worth of over Rs. 250 crore will have to follow the new accounting standards.

India will join the growing band of nations, currently more than 100 -- in terms aligning accounting standards for cross-border acceptability and facilitation of two-way capital flow. In July 2014, the Finance Minister in his Budget speech proposed the adoption of the Ind AS by Indian companies voluntarily from FY 2015-16 and mandatory from FY 2016-17.

In March 2014, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) submitted to Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) a proposed new IFRS roadmap and convergence plan for India. In the proposed roadmap, the ICAI recommended implementation of Ind AS by select companies only in preparation of their consolidated financial statements.

The convergence Ind AS towards IFRS, which has a number of moving parts and regularly updated, will broadly follow all elements except for two areas two areas -- foreign exchange and agriculture. “Here the standards have been tweaked to suit norms based on Indian realities," ICAI council member Abhijit Bandyopadhyay explained. (PTI - The Hindu)