The firms involved in the survey are Arthur Andersen, BDO, Deloitte Touche Tohamatsu, Ernst & Young International, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The report provides an overview of some of the differences between national accounting rules and selected features of International Accounting Standards (IAS).

According to Mr Ameet Parikh of Arther Andersen and overall co-ordinator in India for the survey: "This survey responds to a number of requests for an overview of the major differences between national accounting rules around the world. Everybody talks about convergence of financial reporting standards, so we wanted to provide a `snapshot' of how rules look at the end of the year 2000. Now we can all assess where progress needs to be made."

Mr Parikh added that while there continues to be differences between IAS and Indian GAAP, initiatives by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on consolidation of financial statements and the recent accounting standards issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on segmental reporting and related party transactions, would permit harmonisation of our standards with those accepted internationally.

The survey looks at 60 key accounting measures (including a few areas of disclosure) and highlights instances where a country's rules at December 2000 would not allow, or would not require, the IAS accounting treatment. The focus is on consolidated accounts for listed companies.

The study also highlights how Indian accounting may differ from that required by IAS because of the absence of specific rules in the following areas - accounting for joint ventures, creation of provisions in the context of business combinations accounted for as acquisitions, impairment of assets, capitalisation of leases, discounting of provisions and accounting for deferred, tax among others. The US GAAP has a complex set of procedures, while the IAS is more directional, according to Mr Parikh.