Joint Accounting Bodies comment on consistency in accounting

Date issued: 26 July 2010

CPA Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and the National Institute of Accountants have commented on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) discussion paper and the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) invitation to comment — extractive activities.

The Joint Accounting Bodies consider that the IASB should add extractive activities to their agenda as a matter of priority.

This needs to be addressed not just for public entities, but for private entities using the International Financial Reporting Standard for small-to-medium sized enterprises.

Although CPA Australia supports what has been done so far, we are not convinced that there is a need for a financial reporting approach specific to extractive activities.

Any extractive industry proposals should follow the principles of Conceptual framework for financial reporting and those requirements in existing standards. A better starting point may be to amend existing standard requirements to take into account specific extractive industry issues.