XBRL International was incorporated in 1998 to have jurisdiction for the development of XBRL and membership all over the world. XBRL India started functioning under the aegis of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India starting in December 2008. It has recently been converted into a full jurisdiction of XBRL International for promotion & development of XBRL in India.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the regulator of the Indian securities market, has embarked upon the development of a platform named “SEBI Unified Platform for Electronic Reporting – Dissemination (SUPER – D)” for comprehensive XBRL reporting by listed entities, registered intermediaries and others. The new system will be capable of managing the simultaneous filing of 500 documents on a normal day and have peak-period capacity of handling 15,000 simultaneous filings. Besides disseminating the information on a real-time basis to investors and others, the new system will also help SEBI and other regulatory and investigative agencies in monitoring any irregularities in the affairs of companies and market intermediaries. To start with, SEBI is likely to make the new business reporting mechanism mandatory for mutual funds and then expand this system to other segments in phases. SEBI has recently released the XBRL Taxonomy for Mutual Funds in India for public comments. The new platform will replace the Corporate Filing and Dissemination System (CFDS), which was created in 2008 for filing of corporate announcements, revenue results, shareholding patterns and other information by the 100 top listed companies.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the regulator for all banks in India, has already implemented XBRL-based reporting for three returns: capital adequacy data as per Basel II norms, Form A and the GPB Return by banks though the Online Return Filing System (ORFS). RBI is in the process of implementing XBRL-based filings for several other returns, including annual and quarterly financial statements.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has already decided to implement XBRL-based filing for all companies in India starting in 2011. It is expected that publicly traded companies and companies above a certain size in terms of networth will be asked to submit their returns in XBRL format from July 1, 2011 and later it will be extended to all companies.
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the regulator for approval of tariffs for all power projects in India, is also in the process of implementing XBRL.
Jointly with XBRL India and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, SEBI successfully hosted the 2nd XBRL Asian Workshop and National Conference on XBRL in India on February 17-18, 2011. An XBRL workshop provided an opportunity to share the experiences of financial sector regulators. The conference provided an opportunity to the regulators to share their plans for implementation of XBRL in their respective fields.
With the regulators pushing for implementation of XBRL-based reporting, one can expect a lot of developments and opportunities emerging from 2011 onwards.
by Vinod Kashyap
Above info shows that in the next 3 years XBRL will be the one and only reporting format across all regulators in India.