``A number of companies in India are now restating their financials as per the US GAAP. Like all operational and strategic processes where Indian companies are striving to match the best and in class, we are increasingly seeing companies wanting to achieve the same in reporting strategies'', said Bala Swaminathan, one of the faculty members at the workshop conducted by KPMG and the Indo American Chamber of Commerce.

The adoption of the US accounting principle serves as a clear indication that the companies are prepared to benchmark themselves on a global basis and adopt the highest transparency standards, said Bala.

Bala said that the use of the US GAAP would help the corporates attract a much higher multiple on the bourses and it is visible in the stocks of most of the companise following the US GAAP.

Atpresent, close to 12 companies are in queue to offer their equity in the overseas markets and seeking overseas listing. These companies have either started using US GAAP or are in the process of doing so. Reliance Industries is among the few corporates to have adopted the US-GAPP to provide transparency to its accounts.

It takes around six months for big companies in India to change their accounts to US-GAAP. However, it depends on expertise of accounting team which is doing the job.

The US-GAPP has an edge over Indian accounting standards as far as the transparency is concerned. While in the US GAAP, consolidation of majority owned subsidiaries is required, in Indian standards it is not required. The US GAAP requires computation and disclosure of a number of items, for example, deferred taxation, earning per share, financial derivatives impairment of assets.

The workshop was structured to address all major relevant issues.

The workshop was attended by CEOs and senior finance and accountsprofessionals from corporates such as Allied Signal, Goodyear, Hero Honda, IBP caltex, Indo Mobil, Max India, Telstra, ICRA and NIIT etc.

KPMG is focussing on US GAAP and reporting services and has recently assisted ICICI and Infosys among a host of others in their US GAAP work.