Insurance industry wants IFRS 17 adoption deferred

Chennai: Insurance industry bodies have asked the regulator and the government to defer the implementation of the new global accounting standard IFRS 17 till the time when it is implemented internationally and the teething troubles are rectified. They find that India does not have to pioneer in the implementation of the standards.

The General Insurance Council, Life Insurance Council and Institute of Actuaries of India have written to IRDAI and the government seeking deferment of the new accounting standards. While the International Accounting Standards Board has postponed the implementation of IFRS 17 to Jan 2022, IRDAI has set a deadline of 2021 to roll out the process towards adopting the new accounting standards.

"We don't have to hurry with the implementation of IFRS 17 or its IND AS equivalent. IFRS norms like risk-based capital framework is necessary to assess the financial strength of a company, but the new system will require a lot of cultural change. Bigger companies will have to redo everything. On behalf of the insurance companies, we have requested the regulator and the government to wait till IFRS 17 is implemented internationally, the teething troubles are corrected and we are able to assess the impact of the new standards," said R Chandrasekaran, Secretary General, GIC.