The Finance Minister in the Budget speech 2014-15 announced that the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) i.e. accounting standards based largely on with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) shall be applied by Indian Companies from F.Y. 2015-16 voluntarily and from F.Y. 2016-17 on a mandatory basis. Implementation of Ind AS for banks, insurance companies and NBFC’s shall be announced at a later date by their respective regulators. Necessary steps to implement this decision are under way.

This was stated by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Adoption of Indian Accounting Standards: voluntary initial phase followed by mandatory application; banking and insurance sectors deferred to regulators. The government announced phased adoption of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS), aligned with International Financial Reporting Standards, with an initial voluntary phase followed by mandatory application for Indian companies, while deferring implementation decisions for banks, insurance companies and non-banking financial companies to their respective regulators; preparatory steps to implement this transition are underway.