Industry calls for extended financial year due to coronavirus pandemic

The auditors cited issues such as physical verifications of inventories, fixed assets, balance confirmations, fair-value measurements, and going-concern assessments

Auditors and industry bodies have called for extending the financial year 2019-20 by three months, till the end of June, amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Industry representatives recently met officials of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, seeking among other things, an extension of the financial year on grounds that “any financial statement prepared for April 2019 to March 2020, will not give a true and fair view as it does not represent one complete business cycle of the entity”.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) told the ministry: “With the current backdrop of coronavirus, the entire economy is getting stagnated