NFRA organises nationwide outreach programmes to enhance audit quality

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra said the outreach initiatives titled Creating a Better Financial Reporting World are aimed at enhancing audit quality and promoting sustainable audit practices for all audit firms, especially the small medium-sized audit firms.

The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) is organising nationwide outreach programmes to enhance audit quality and promote sustainable audit practices, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra said the outreach initiatives titled ''Creating a Better Financial Reporting World'' are aimed at enhancing audit quality and promoting sustainable audit practices for all audit firms, especially the small & medium-sized audit firms. NFRA has already organised workshops in Hyderabad and Indore.

Alongside the outreach series, NFRA initiated its first-ever audit firms survey, which received responses from 383 firms across India.

The survey is intended to identify challenges affecting audit quality and will be used by NFRA to tailor its roles and responsibilities and enable constructive dialogue with all audit firms and practitioners.

Malhotra further stated that NFRA has taken several key measures aligned with its mandate. These include recommending 40 revised Standards on Auditing and 47 amendments to Ind AS (Indian Accounting Standard), of which 44 have been notified. The minister noted that NFRA continues to take disciplinary action for professional misconduct, thereby sensitising the audit profession regarding their responsibility in law and accounting and auditing standards.

''Learnings from NFRA orders have been published by the profession itself. NFRA has also conducted webinars and is consistently engaging with stakeholders to disseminate its experience and findings,'' he said.

NFRA also undertook audit quality inspections in December 2022, covering both firm-wide and individual engagement undertaken by the audit firms in respect of the Public Interest Entities audits.

''So far, 12 audit quality inspection reports have been published on the NFRA website,'' the minister said.

The audit regulator NFRA has also collaborated with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to launch a four-month course for capacity building of independent directors and audit committee members of companies.

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