International Business Research
Harmonization of Accounting Standards through Internationalization
Nikhil Chandra Shil, ACMA (Corresponding Author) Department of Business Administration East West University 43, Mohakhali C/A, Dhaka – 1212, Bangladesh Tel: 9887989(Off.) ext 253, 01819289589 (M) Dr. Bhagaban Das P.G. Department of Business Management, Fakir Mohan University P. O.: Balasore, Pin.: 756019, Orissa, India E-mail: bhagaban_fm@yahoo.com Alok Kumar Pramanik Department of Commerce, Bhatter College P. O.: Dantan, Pin. : 721426, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India E-mail: alokdantan@sify.com Abstract The journey to have a common set of accounting standards started long before to give it a professional shape and essence. And accountants all over the world feel the necessity to shorten the gap among different streams of accounting practices through harmonization. Still, we have a couple of strong variants of accounting practices (say, for example, US GAAP, UK GAAP, IAS etc.) over the world existed and practiced simultaneously. These variants are working as threats towards harmonization of accounting practices. However, the profession has also witnessed some improvements in recent years in the process of global convergence putting some ray of hope. International and even local standard setting bodies have come up with projects of harmonization and in most of the cases became successful. The day is not far away when we will observe that accounting world is controlled and guided by a single set of standards giving it a status of legal discipline in true sense. The paper focuses on this harmonization issue, its current status, challenges with special reference to Indian perspective. Keywords: Harmonization of Accounting Standards, International Accounting Standards, International Financial Reporting Standards, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Securities and Exchange Commission, International Accounting Standards Committee, Convergence
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