'Chartered Accountants conscience keepers of nation's account'

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Jitendra Singh on Friday said that Chartered Accountants are the conscious keepers of a nation's account.

Speaking at the Annual Award presentation event of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), he said that integrity of their (CAs) own conscience is vital for the health of a nation in general and the financial health of a nation in particular.

He presented Awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting and International Sustainable Reporting to the country's different corporate houses as well as public and private sector units.

In his address, Singh noted that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the country's premier accounting body, has been entrusted with the task of establishing solid accounting practices and standards to be followed by all concerned. In doing so, he said, the ICAI has to live up to high expectations of following supreme standards of accountability, excellence and honesty, in the interest of nation building.

The Minister reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced a series of path breaking measures to bring "ease of business" and at the same time to raise the Indian economy in compatibility with the global benchmarks. In times like this, he said, the role of ICAI becomes all the more critical over the years to come.

"Financial reporting is critical to the successful operations of financial markets because it provides even-handed objective and unbiased information through annually published reports," Singh said.

This, in turn, also helps the government and its agencies in allocating required resources and serves as the foundation for calculating a nation's income and other related areas, he added.

He was glad to note that the ICAI had issued various Indian accounting standards and also revised certain previous accounting standards to bring them in line with the most advanced fields in the field of accounting.

On the occasion,Singh also presented SAARC Annual Awards for Corporate Governance Disclosures Competition

President ICAI Nihar Jambusaria, Vice-President ICAI Debashis Mitra, also spoke on the occasion.

Among the recipients of awards were some of India's leading corporate and public sector houses including Tatas, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance, NHPC and others.

Established in 1958, the "Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Awards for Financial Reporting" provides a credible platform for various companies to improve their standards of financial reporting.