New norms have been put in place for Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) filing with effect from 6^thOctober, 2011 for select class of companies. For the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12 a total of  2,90,39 and 2,57,86 companies respectively have filed their Balance Sheet using the revised XBRL norms. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Shri Sachin Pilot, Minister of Corporate Affairs, said that his Ministry had set up a Committee in November, 2011 comprising of XBRL experts and representatives from the corporate sector as well as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) with the following terms of references:

i. Identification of class of companies and various reports to be filed in XBRL in a phased manner;

ii. Development of Taxonomies to be used by Corporates for their regulatory filings to government agencies; 

iii. Extensions in Taxonomies and XBRL Assurance framework;

iv. Training, awareness and capacity building of stakeholders; and

v.  Framework for consumption & dissemination of XBRL data.

Information regarding setting up the Committee and its terms of reference was put on the Ministry’s website:www.mca.gov.in for information of the general public, inviting suggestions and comments.  In response to this, a large number of suggestions were received regarding:

i.   New accounting concepts (elements) in the taxonomy;

ii. Approach that may be adopted in development of applicable taxonomies;

iii. Approach that may be adopted for resolving technical issues like ‘extensions’ in taxonomies and rendering of XBRL documents;

iv.  Phased coverage of new companies / filings in XBRL; and

v.   Framework for consumption and dissemination of XBRL data, etc.