India Incorporated now has around 20 months to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards strictly. According to Sai Venkateshwaran, partner and head of the accounting advisory services of KPMG in India, after the indefinite postponement of introduction of IFRS in 2011, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget speech for 2014-15 clearly set the deadlines – optional for financial year 2015-16 and mandatory from 2016-17 onwards.

Corporate accountants, auditors and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India have to gear up for the revival of the migration process from the current accounting practices (Indian GAAP) to IFRS, he mentioned.

India is also on the threshold of finalising new tax accounting standards, he said. “In the past couple of years, the Finance Ministry has gathered opinions from stakeholders on a draft standards. It needs to be given a final shape. We hope to have the tax accounting standards ready soon,” Venkateshwaran said.

The timelines for financial services sector, including banks and insurance companies, is also expected to be finalised soon.

These come at a time when capital market activity is picking up, both in India and globally, and this certainly comes as a boost to further strengthen the capital markets, KPMG said.

The global consulting firm also said learning from past efforts at convergence in 2011, the Government should finalise the roadmap for implementation immediately. This roadmap should consider implementation in a phased manner, taking into account the various challenges involved in the implementation, including sectoral issues, as well as wider issues around capacity building.

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