AS 17: Impact on segment disclosures by Indian firms

Abstract

AS 17 (Accounting Standard issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) is a relatively new standard in India for governing segment disclosures. There has been a lot of research on similar standards abroad pertaining to their local contexts. The current research applies ideas from those findings to the Indian context (within the limitations and scope as laid out in the document's introduction).This research finds a correlation between a firm's investor profitability, its financial leverage and its disclosure policy. The research doesn't find size and ownership structure to be significant factors in the disclosure policy of the Indian firms. The research also finds gaps in the application of the standard by the firms, in using their discretion to aggregate segments. It suggests that there is still some way to go before the primary objectives of the standard are fully realised by the investors.