Sub:   Exposure Draft of Amendments to Ind AS 117, Insurance Contracts, for comments

The Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) are based on the IFRS Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), a high quality globally accepted Accounting Standards.

The IFRS Standards/IFRIC are being issued/revised by the IASB from time to time and in order to remain converged with IFRS Standards, Ind AS are issued/revised corresponding to the IFRS Standards. The ICAI issues/revises the corresponding Ind AS to stay converged with IFRS Standards. In certain situations keeping in view the Indian conditions and circumstances, certain other changes may also be made in the corresponding Ind AS.

In this regard, Accounting Standards Board (ASB) decided to issue the Exposure Draft ofAmendments to Ind AS 117, Insurance Contracts, corresponding to amendments in IFRS 17 for public comments. It may be noted that in May 2017, the IASB issued new standard on insurance contracts, IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts, replacing IFRS 4 which was in the nature of an interim standard pending the completion of the project on insurance contracts by the IASB. IFRS 17, first comprehensive international standard, sets out the principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of insurance contracts within the scope of the Standard.  After issuing IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts, the IASB established a Transition Resource Group for IFRS 17 to  discuss  implementation questions, and meeting with stakeholders affected by the changes introduced by IFRS 17, including  preparers  and  users  of  financial  statements,  auditors  and  regulators. It helped the IASB to understand the concerns and challenges that arose for some entities while implementing the Standard. In May 2019, the IASB issued the Exposure Draft of Amendments to IFRS 17. After considering comments on the Exposure Draft, in June 2020, the IASB published amendments to IFRS 17 including a deferral of the effective date of Standard by two years, i.e., from annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023.

To remain converged with the IFRS Standards, in 2018, Ind AS 117, Insurance Contracts, corresponding to IFRS 17 was formulated which was cleared by the Council, ICAI. Moving forward in this direction in line with international developments, the Exposure Draft of Amendments to Ind AS 117 has been formulated corresponding to amendments to IFRS 17. The downloadable version of Exposure Draft is available at https://www.icai.org/post/ed-amendments-to-indas-117-insurance-contracts

Comments on the abovementioned Exposure Draft may be submitted before January 24, 2021, through any of the following modes:

Further clarifications on the Exposure Draft may be sought by e-mail to asb@icai.in.