International Financial Reporting Standards Implementation in India: Benefits and Problems

Abstract

<p><em>International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) introduced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB is international financial reporting standard. IFRS is a single set of high quality, understandable and enforceable global accounting standards. It is a "principles based" set of standards which are drafted lucidly and are easy to understand and apply. IFRSs were adopted first time in 2005 by EU (European Union) and are now accepted or required in more than 120 countries. In India, this is in an implementation stage. This paper tries to study the implementation problems in India and make suggestions to solve the problems. The important implementation problems are cost, lack of awareness about IFRS among investors, and no uniformity in accounting guidance issued by various regulators (SEBI, IRDA, RBI) in India. The suggestions are to provide proper training and education to accounting professionals and employees about IFRS; Government has to reform the taxation system to match with IFRS. </em></p>