TCS Q1 results will be IFRS compliant: Mahalingam

Even as the government is yet to announce the new date for implementing the global accounting standards IFRS, country's largest software exporter TCS  said it will adopt the same from the June quarter.

"We will be reporting our June quarter numbers in Indian and Gaap as well as in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) compliant format," TCS executive director and chief financial officer S Mahalingam said here. Mahalingam, who is also the chairman of CII's IFRS committee, was talking to the press on the sidelines of the 3rd international summit on IFRS organised by the industry body here. Whether the IFRS reporting will have any negative implications on TCS' Q1 numbers, Mahalingam said, "I see neither any positive nor negative impact on our numbers due to this implementation." The government has put on hold implementation of the convergence of domestic accounting standards with the international standards, following lobbying by corporates and unresolved taxation issues.  Initially, the government was planning to converge the domestic accounting norms with IFRS from April 1 in a phased manner. However, companies lobbied hard to defer it saying they were unprepared for it. Industry body Ficci had even written to the Corporate Affairs Ministry seeking more time. While putting off implementation, citing several unresolved issues, including tax related ones, on February 25, the finance ministry said it would be ensured that the IFRS convergence would be smooth for the stakeholders. On that day, the ministry had also notified 35 accounting standards to update domestic accounting norms in line with IFRS and said, the new date would be announced after the Budget. But nothing has been heard since then. On how TCS is looking at IFRS as a revenue generation opportunity, he said, IT product vendors stand to gain more on the revenue side from IFRS implementation than services players like TCS. "With nearly USD 8 billion in topline, around USD 13 million additional income from IFRS is not much for us. But IT product vendors like SAP will benefit better," he said. On the new headwinds on the global economic front and their impact on his company, he said, "as of now we stand by our guidance given at the annual results. Despite the new headwinds facing the US economy, which is our largest market and which are a matter of concern for all, demand for our services from the US is still strong, and we don't want to change our outlook now." On the wild fluctuations in the forex market of late, Mahalingam said, "we are not unduly worried as we are offering more services from the domestic market now, which will help us offset the forex losses." The IFRS implementation is expected to cause some upheaval in the finances of companies as the standards call for projecting assets on a mark-to-market basis or the real value.