ESG: New non-financial accounting norms in the works, as ESG grabs centre stage

Capital markets regulator Sebi is evaluating various accounting standards and also exploring the feasibility of extending its mandatory sustainability reporting norms to more listed companies than the current 1,000 “when the time is right”, people aware of the matter said.

Given the growing importance of sustainability worldwide, the regulator wants Indian firms to prepare for such “non-financial accounting” standards that are going to dominate the world of financing and influence the way funds are raised, one of them said.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) president Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal told ET that the institute has submitted to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) and Sebi a “comparative analysis” of various non-financial reporting standards—the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) standards mandated by Sebi for the top 1,000 companies, the global S1 and S2 standards of the IFRS Board and the 16 sustainability standards developed by the ICAI—for their consideration.

“The government and the regulator will take a decision in due course on any such new norms. Sebi will decide whether such standards will be extended to more companies,” Agarwal said.

Sebi has already sought public comments on the recommendations of an expert committee pertaining to the BRSR for greater ease of doing business.“The regulator wants easier standards to ensure that they don’t add to the compliance burden while preparing our companies for the heightened global focus on non-financial, sustainability accounting standards,” said the official cited above.Opportunities for accountantsGiven that investors are no longer assessing the performance of companies based just on their balance sheets and profit margins and are increasingly factoring in EGS (environmental, social and governance) issues, auditors and accountants have a great opportunity to cash in on, Agarwal said.

“As of now, the primary focus (of accountants) is on the financials of companies. Going forward, non-financial data will dominate the financing of companies, in which chartered accountants (CAs) will play a big role. We have informed them,” he said.

Sebi has mandated the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation to include BRSR in their annual reports, applicable in phases by 2026-27.

The BRSR Core reporting format is divided into three sections dealing with general disclosures, management and process disclosures, and principle-wise performance disclosures. It essentially recommends companies to disclose their value chain metrics relating to ESG.