New Delhi: The ministry of rporate affairs (MCA) is going to make the advanced reporting language tool, XBRL (eXtensible business reporting language), mandatory for all mpanies from the next financial year, including small and medium enterprises.

XBRL nverts financial statements of any format into a machine-readable format, which facilitates detailed mparison and quick analysis.

At present, XBRL reporting is applicable to all the listed mpanies and their Indian subsidiaries and all other mpanies having a paid-up capital of R5 crore and above or turnover of R100 crore and above. MCA, in a circular on XBRL issued in May, said “banking, insurance, power mpanies, non-banking financial mpanies (NBFCs) and overseas subsidiaries of these mpanies” will be exempted from this arrangement.

Acrding to experts, although the ministry is putting the right foot forward, the rporates are facing some problems. There are a number of clarifications which are still being sought from the MCA, like the spe of filing, filing platform and mode of filing. KPMG Acunting Advisory Services head Jamil Khatri said, “panies are supposed to file financial statements for 2010-11 in XBRL mode by September 30. But MCA came out with this circular on March 31, which gives very little time to meet the deadline. The mpanies will find it difficult to meet the deadline if the clarifications are not provided in reasonable time.”

Former ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal said, “The ministry should give clear guidelines to the rporates for implementation of XBRL. Even though XBRL will involve some initial nversion sts for mpanies, the long-term benefits for investors and capital markets would be significant.”

Acrding to the MCA official, “The ministry is keeping in nsideration the smaller mpanies who would find the XBRL reporting tool an extra st and is planning to rope in professionals who would provide XBRL services at lower rates.”