The National Financial Reporting Authority is a regulatory body set up under Section 132 of the Companies Act to oversee compliance with Accounting and Auditing Standards by companies that can be described as Public Interest Entities (PIEs). This group includes all listed companies, and large unlisted companies.
To discharge this mandate, NFRA is in the process of creating a verified and accurate database of companies and auditors that come under the regulatory ambit of NFRA.
Establishment of this data base involves critical steps like identification and verification of the primary data source, and reconciliation of data (such as Company Identification Number (CIN) which is dynamic) from different sources. In this regard the NFRA has been engaging with the Corporate Data Management (CDM) division of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and three recognised stock exchanges in India.
A provisional data base of companies and their auditors as of 31st March 2019 has been compiled by the NFRA. This includes approx. 6,500 companies, comprising listed companies (around 5,300), unlisted companies (around 1,000), and Insurance and Banking Companies. The auditor details for many of these companies have been compiled; in the remaining cases, this exercise is in progress.
To achieve the objectives for which NFRA has been established, and to promote transparency in its working, this provisional data as of 31st March 2019 has been published on the website of the NFRA (https://www.nfra.gov.in/nfra_domain). This provisional data will be updated/revised going forward based on the collection of further data and information. Similar exercise for compilation of the data base as of 31st March 2020 will be undertaken shortly.
****
RM/MV/KMN