Has India Abandoned IFRS?

I need to be careful here, because this is something I was told second hand: India has bailed out of IFRS.

My source is a member of the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. He reports that he had a conversation with another CAG member, the IASB Director of Research, Wayne Upton, during a break of their recently-concluded meeting. Upton reportedly said that India had just recanted; apparently because the Indian Accounting Standards would have contained something like 65 carve outs, and they didn't see the point of it all.

From a market-share perspective, the loss of India essentially means that IFRS has let slip through its fingers 17% of the world's population, in one of the fastest growing economies, and with one of the most sophisticated accounting professions. If the U.S. becomes the next domino to fall (as it should!), IFRS will be rapidly and perilously approaching its stasis: E(uropean)FRS.

I haven't found any online articles yet indicating that India has abandoned IFRS, so it might be that you could have actually heard it here first. Anyway, it's probably a safe bet that you won't be learning about it very soon in any Big Four, AICPA or IFRS publication.

But, whatever the case, I would be very interested in obtaining a detailed listing of those 65-odd carve-outs; and if I do I'll certainly write a post about it. Does anybody have an online (or other) source that might have this information?

Comments

[Sonia Jaspal]

Doesn't look like it from President of ICAI's message for march 2011
http://www.icai.org/new_post.html?post_id=7027&c_id=240

[Dave Albrecht]

I knew something was happening, given the recent announcement that they were deferring adoption for at least a year. So this tip is consistent.

I don't have any online sources, sorry.

[Matt]

http://www.complianceweek.com/india-could-abandon-mandatory-ifrs/article/196592/

[True Blue]

"But, whatever the case, I would be very interested in obtaining a detailed listing of those 65-odd carve-outs; and if I do I'll certainly write a post about it. Does anybody have an online (or other) source that might have this information?"

http://www.iasplus.com/asia/1103intrackingifrs9.pdf

The standards themselves are here:

http://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/accounting_standards.html

[Sunil Thukral]

Hi Tom,

Here is the link to the article that lists out the 4 main carve-outs under IFRS. I presume that there might be other smaller items that might be inconsequential to the adoption of IFRS in India. See link: http://lnkd.in/NMXARK

Here is a link to the other article that was published last month that states that adoption of IFRS in India will be delayed. Here is the link: http://lnkd.in/F-uby7

However, the main problem with IFRS is that there are many different versions of IFRS floating around the world. We have the EU version of IFRS that has been adopted in Europe, Indian version of IFRS (if adopted in India). See the link for additional details: http://lnkd.in/2pgrwE

[Dr. Santanu K. Ganguli]

Where didi you get this information from? India was supposed to become IFRS complient in phased manner from 1st April, 2011. A number of legislations, for example the companies Act, Income tax Act etc have to be amended to make them IFRS compatible. Pending the amendment implementation has been put on a hold. Most of the existing accounting standards in India to a great extent are already in line with IFRS. Some are nothing but almost carbon copies. New accounting standard on financial instrument to be effective fron 1.4.2011 have directly been copied from IFRS. It is just a matter of time to become wholly IFRS complient .......

[Ram]

The IFRS carve outs are clear in this article:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-accountancy/article1504558.ece