The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has decided to make the following limited revisions to Accounting Standard (AS) 18, Related Party Disclosures.

Paragraph 26 of AS 18 is decided to be revised as under and a new explanatory paragraph 27 is decided to be added. The limited revisions are shown as underlined.

“26. Items of a similar nature may be disclosed in aggregate by type of related party except when separate disclosure is necessary for an understanding of the effects of related party transactions on the financial statements of the reporting enterprise.

27. Disclosure of details of particular transactions with individual related parties would frequently be too voluminous to be easily understood. Accordingly, items of a similar nature may be disclosed in aggregate by type of related party. However, this is not done in such a way as to obscure the importance of significant transactions. Hence, purchases or sales of goods are not aggregated with purchases or sales of fixed assets. Nor a material related party transaction with an individual party is clubbed in an aggregated disclosure.”

The above revisions would come into effect in respect of accounting periods commencing on or after 1-4-2003. Earlier application is encouraged.