It’s like a dream being achieved if not fully but partially for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). ICAI bid for transparent and accountable accounting regime come to reality today with Indian Railways releasing the first ever Accrual Based Financial Statement for North Western Railway in technical collaboration of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI).

Indian Railways (spread in more than 17 Zones and 8 Production units with ancillary units) to inculcate the accountability and transparency along with governance in Accounting and reporting started an innovative project of outcome budgeting i.e. accounting to performance analysis and finally reaching at outcome budgeting. In simpler terms outcome budgeting means to evaluate the outcome of every rupee spent to achieve best utilization of resources and inculcate effectiveness.

Despite such a huge network spread across the country, Indian Railways took the pioneering step of embracing accrual system by engaging ICAI ARF to conduct a pilot study to prepare the financial statements of North Western Zonal Railway on accrual basis as an additional set of accounts. ICAI being partner in Nation Building, always looks for accrual accounting as a tool to achieve these targets, through its research arm i.e. Accounting Research Foundation (ARF).

During the National Conference organised at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Railways released the Financial Statements along with implementation manual and Accounting policies in the presence of Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, CA. M. Devaraja Reddy, President ICAI, Financial Commissioner, Indian Railways. The event also witnessed presence of senior Government officials of CAG, CGA, Niti Aayog, Indian Railways and other government departments.

ICAI, through its research arm, ICAI ARF has long been advocating implementation of Accrual Accounting in Government establishments for its obvious benefits as it assists in policy formulation e.g. Costing of Services, Diagnostic, MIS, etc., provides appropriate information for decision-making, assists in accountability & transparency and Benchmarking for comparison and evaluation of efficiency in train services including passenger and goods.