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T Rex

D. Murali

THE ancient profession of accounting has at last turned its attention to an ancient occupation -- agriculture. The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) decided about six months back to finalise its standard, IAS 41, on `agriculture', to de al with the accounting for agriculture produce and the biological assets. Helpfully, the ICAI has carried in its latest issue a write up on IAS 41. Soon, the Indian Institute too would be issuing its own standard, to keep up with the Joneses, altering co mmas and full stops, to give it the local touch.

At a time when Chennai-ites gaze at passing clouds with parched pots, Bhuj-walas raise back the razed structures, or God's own `country' battles with seismic activity on rail tracks, it is but natural for people to look at nature a little more closely if only to get answers for puzzles. Possibly, that is why it took so long for the IASC too to come up with a standard on agriculture, defining agri terms afresh: `Agricultural produce' is the harvested product of the enterprise's biological assets; `biolog ical asset' is a living animal or plant; `biological transformation' comprises the processes of growth, degeneration, production and procreation that cause qualitative or quantitative changes in a biological asset; and `harvest' is the detachment of prod uce from a biological asset or the cessation of an asset's life processes.

While the agriculturist would continue ploughing, his accountant would ``measure all biological assets at fair value less expected point-of-sale costs at each balance sheet date''.

In a country such as India, where agriculture plays a major role, one could have expected the Indian Institute, as a member of the IASC, to perform an active part in the IAS-making. Whether the ICAI sent in its inputs as reaction to the exposure draft, n one would know. The agri standard would actually help the ICAI by silencing the critics who faulted the Institute for thinking about ``accounting for dotcoms'' only when dotcoms are dying.

Next could be an AS on dinosaurs.

e-mail: dmurali@thehindu.co.in