Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has incorporated two significant modifications this year with regard to the XBRL filings. They are:

  1. Revamping the taxonomy for Commercial Industrial (C&I) companies in order to synchronize with the changes as per Companies Act, 2013 and rules thereunder, and
  2. Upgrading the costing taxonomy in order to file the Cost Audit Reports under Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules, 2014 (the Rules).

MCA is currently planning to replace the existing taxonomy for C&I companies with a new taxonomy based on the notified provisions of Companies Act, 2013, and the rules thereunder. The proposed taxonomy has been released by the Taxonomy Development and Review Committee of XBRL in order to accommodate the changes as per Companies Act, 2013, and the rules notified thereunder.

The proposed taxonomy has included some elements with respect to the new form, AOC-4. The broad changes in the taxonomy for C&I companies are as follows: –

  • Addition of new Extended Link Roles (ELRs) on Corporate Social Responsibility and Secretarial Audit Report.
  • Additional disclosure requirements in Boards Report.
  • Modifications in the Auditors Report owing to the introduction of Cost Audit Report Order (CARO) 2015 in place of CARO 2003.
  • Element-related changes in the proposed 2015 Taxonomy.

These changes will be applicable for the reporting period starting from 1st April 2014 onwards. Hence, C&I companies filing XBRL instance documents for the financial year 2014-15 will have to wait till the new Taxonomy gets sanctioned by the MCA, and becomes available for filing on the MCA Portal.

MCA has also replaced the existing Forms 23AC and 23ACA with a new Form, AOC-4. The electronic version of Forms AOC-4 and AOC-4 XBRL are being developed and shall be made available for electronic filing latest by 30th September, 2015. However, in view of the latest developments, the Ministry has extended the last date for filing the electronic version of the forms AOC-4, AOC-4 XBRL, AOC-4 CFS and MGT-7 to 31st Oct, 2015 relaxing the additional fee payable on filing XBRL forms vide circular no 10/2015 dated 13th July, 2015.

In addition to the C&I Proposed Taxonomy 2015, MCA has also upgraded the Costing Taxonomy 2015 based on the amended Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules, 2015 dated 12th June, 2015. MCA has brought out the revised e-forms CRA-2 (Appointment of Cost Auditor) and CRA-4 for filling the Cost Audit Report. MCA has mandated filing of Cost Audit Reports in XBRL Mode.

The Institute of Cost Accountants of India has developed Costing Taxonomy-2015. MCA has released the Validation Tool and Costing Taxonomy for filing cost audit reports under Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules, 2014 (the Rules). MCA has now informed that XBRL validation tool version 2.0 (beta) (for Costing Taxonomy 2015) has been released, to cater to the filing regulations for both Costing Taxonomy 2012 and 2015.

Considering the delay in availability of CRA-4 Form, the MCA has extended the time limit for filing the Cost Audit Report CRA-4, till 31st August 2015, and waived off the additional fees on delayed filing of form CRA-4 beyond the prescribed period of 30 days from the date of receipt of a copy of Cost Audit Report from the Cost Auditor, for the Financial Year starting on or after 1st April, 2014. The filing extension and waiving off the additional fees has been notified by the MCA, vide a separate circular No 08/2015 dated 12th June, 2015.