ICAI announces Exposure Draft of General Purpose Financial Reporting XBRL Taxonomy for Commercial and Industrial Companies

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a novel way of electronic communication of business and financial data that is of immense utility to the capital markets and the investing community. Those who stand to benefit include all who collect business data, including governments, regulators, economic agencies, stock exchanges, financial information companies and the like, and those who produce or use it, including accountants, auditors, company managers, financial analysts, investors and creditors.

Keeping in view the rising importance of XBRL and the advantages it has to offer, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India constituted a Group on XBRL in January 2007, under the chairmanship of the President, ICAI. The main objective of the Group is to establish a forum for the development of XBRL in India including its promotion and to develop taxonomy for XBRL based reporting bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Indian Accounting Standards.

Recently, the Group has finalised the draft general purpose financial reporting XBRL taxonomy for commercial and industrial companies. This draft taxonomy covers the financial statements, viz., Balance Sheet, Statement of Profit and Loss, and Cash Flow Statement and the related non-financial information. The draft taxonomy has been developed conforming to Indian Accounting Standards and Company Law while adapting the architectural features of the IFRS general purpose taxonomy 2006.

Comments are invited on the draft general purpose financial reporting XBRL taxonomy for commercial and industrial companies.

Comments may be sent by e-mail at xbrl@icai.org, so as to be received not later October 28, 2008. Alternatively, comments may be submitted in writing to Dr. Avinash Chander, Technical Director, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, ICAI Bhawan, Post Box No. 7100, Indraprastha Marg, New Delhi – 110 002.

Click here to open ICAI Taxonomy

RBI moving towards XBRL Standards

RBI reduces the number of returns to 223 from 291

The Reserve Bank of India has implemented Online Returns Filing System (ORFS) for submission of certain important returns by commercial banks to the Reserve Bank. As part of the online submission of returns, the Reserve Bank will, in due course, adopt the international standards for data sharing among business entities through eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The Reserve Bank is moving towards the XBRL standards under a high level Steering Committee chaired by the Deputy Governor, Shri V. Leeladhar. As part of the XBRL implementation, the Reserve Bank had initiated an exercise of rationalisation of returns. The number of returns to be submitted by Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs) is now reduced to 223 from 291. The Reserve Bank has placed on its website, (a) the list of returns to be submitted as also (b) the list of returns not to be submitted by banks and has requested banks not to submit those returns listed in list (b). G. Raghuraj Deputy General Manager Press Release : 2008-2009/199   http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=18963

XBRL : The IASC Foundation publishes the IFRS Taxonomy Guide

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation announced the publication of the IFRS Taxonomy Guide 1.00 – All you need to know about the IFRS Taxonomy as a preparer, supervisor, software developer…
The document offers assistance in the implementation, application and further development of the IFRS Taxonomy 2008. The IFRS Taxonomy Guide 1.00 is targeted at people with a basic understanding of XBRL and familiarity with International Financial Reporting Standards and its interpretations, inclusive of :

 

• preparers and issuers of financial statements who create instance documents
• supervisors, regulators and other receivers who create specific (national and/or business) taxonomy extensions
• XBRL-compliant software developers.

The IFRS Taxonomy Guide document addresses both the accounting and technology aspects of the IFRS Taxonomy. The Guide comprises the following sections:

 

• The IFRS Taxonomy Architecture which describes the technical options that the IASCF XBRL Team chose when building the IFRS Taxonomy 2008.
• The Preparers Guide that helps preparers and issuers of financial statements in dealing with creation of instance documents.
• The Extenders Guide which describes how to properly extend the IFRS Taxonomy in order to make it consistent with future developments with IFRS and XBRL across the world and in various business areas.
• The Technology Guide provides all technical details on the IFRS Taxonomy, in particular for software developers.
• The Appendices that includes, inter alia, the XBRL fundamentals, a glossary and a style guide.

The IFRS Taxonomy Guide is freely available for download:

http://www.iasb.org/NR/rdonlyres/95D8BAE9-24A1-40D1-A6B1-46F1B9F32436/0/IFRSTaxonomyGuide100080828.pdf

Sebi to soon incorporate XBRL technology

Neha Pal
Posted online: Tuesday , September 09, 2008 at 01:10 hrs

New Delhi, Sep 8The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is looking forward to use the extensible business reporting language (XBRL) technology in the near future where listed companies filing their financial statements with the board will be required to do so in XBRL compatible format. The XBRL is a way of electronic communication of business and financial data and is of immense utility to the capital markets and the investing community.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has taken the task of the development of general purpose XBRL taxonomy for commercial and industrial companies. This taxonomy, which is based on the requirements of the Indian accounting standards and various Indian corporate laws, is near finalisation. The group of the ICAI is chaired by the president of the institute, Ved Jain and comprises among others, various regulators such as Sebi, the ministry of corporate affairs, Reserve Bank of India and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

ICAI president, Ved Jain said, “This move will give corporates a taste of the XBRL technology and address their concerns, if any. Subsequent to the development of general purpose taxonomy, the institute would take up the development of taxonomy for the financial sector, specifically banks and non-banking financial companies.”

XBRL would be beneficial for those who collect business data, including governments, regulators, economic agencies, stock exchanges, financial information companies and the like and those who produce or use it, including accountants, auditors, company managers, financial analysts, investors and creditors. XBRL allows the users of financial statement information to electronically retrieve data with greater assurance of accuracy. The idea behind XBRL is that instead of treating financial information as a block of text, the XBRL technology would allow electronic tagging of each individual item of data so that computers can work on the information using a set of rules. The electronic tags that are applied are standardised and are contained in taxonomies which are essentially the dictionaries used by XBRL that define the specific tags for individual items of data.

Seeing the rising importance of XBRL as an effective means of communicating financial information and the plethora of benefits it has to offer, ICAI constituted the XBRL group in 2007 for undertaking the development and promotion of XBRL in India.

ICAI is also aiming to establish the Indian jurisdiction of XBRL international, where it will become the local entity, which will encourage the development and adoption of XBRL in India and represent Indian interests at the international level.

By the end of September, ICAI will be applying to XBRL international to establish a provisional jurisdiction of XBRL in India

 

Copyright: Financial Express

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Sebi-to-soon-incorporate-XBRL-technology/358949/#

ICAI makes headway in XBRL

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) released a press release today on future of XBRL in India:

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XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a novel way of electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionising business reporting around the world and is immense utility to the capital markets and the investing community. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. XBRL is being developed by XBRL International with headquarters at USA, which is an international non-profit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organisations and government agencies.

 

The idea behind XBRL is simple. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, essentially, the XBRL technology allows electronic tagging of each individual item of data so that computers can work on the information using a set of rules. The electronic tags that are applied are standardised and are contained in taxonomies which are essentially the dictionaries used by XBRL that define the specific tags for individual items of data. The tags are applied using a tagging tool that retrieves the tags from the standards taxonomies and applies them to whatever format the financial statements are created in, such as Microsoft Word or Excel.

 

All those who stand to gain from this technology include all who collect business data, including governments, regulators, economic agencies, stock exchanges, financial information companies and the like and those who produce or use it, including accountants, auditors, company managers, financial analysts, investors and creditors. XBRL allows the users of financial statement information to electronically retrieve data in a jiffy along with the additional context that is provided by the tags and with greater assurance of accuracy given the standardised context of the tags (in the form of taxonomies). 

 

Seeing the rising importance of XBRL as an effective means of communicating financial information and the plethora of benefits it has to offer, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the apex accounting body of the country, constituted the XBRL Group in the year 2007 for undertaking the development and promotion of XBRL in India. The Group of the ICAI  is chaired by the President of the Institute and comprises among others, various regulators such as Securities and Exchange Board of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Reserve Bank of India and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. These regulators are, therefore, supporting ICAI in its XBRL endeavours. Securities and Exchange Board of India is looking to use the XBRL technology in the near future where listed companies filing their financial statements with the Board would be required to do so in XBRL compatible format.

 

ICAI has taken up the task of development of general purpose XBRL taxonomy for commercial and industrial companies. This taxonomy which is based on the requirements of the Indian Accounting Standards and various Indian corporate laws is near finalisation. In this respect, the XBRL Group of the Institute at its meeting which was held on September 2, 2008 decided to expose this draft taxonomy for public comments upon its finalisation. This move it is believed will give corporates a taste of the XBRL technology and address their concerns, if any. Subsequent to the development of general purpose taxonomy, the Institute would take up the development of taxonomy for the financial sector, specifically banks and non-banking financial companies.

 

ICAI is also aiming to establish the Indian jurisdiction of XBRL International, i.e., it will become the local entity which will encourage the development and adoption of XBRL in India and that will represent the Indian interests at the international level. By the end of September, ICAI will be applying to XBRL International to establish a provisional jurisdiction of XBRL in India.