IPSASB Issues Standards on Service Concessions, Annual Improvements

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released new standards on service concession arrangements and annual improvements.

IPSAS 32 Service Concession Arrangements: Grantor seeks to address a lack of international guidance on how governments and other public sector entities should report their involvement in service concession arrangements, often used to build the infrastructure necessary to maintain and improve critical public services.

IPSAS 32 requires that service concession arrangement assets and their related financing are reported by the public sector entity, using an approach that is consistent with that used for the operator's accounting in Interpretation IFRIC 12Service Concession Arrangements. IPSAS 32 uses the principles in IFRIC 12 for determining which entity (grantor or operator) should recognise an asset in a service concession arrangement, in order to ensure that the grantor recognises a service concession asset it controls.

The IPSASB has also published Improvements to IPSASs 2011. The IPSASB's improvements project is modeled on the IASB's annual improvements process. The improvements amend existing IPSASs to maintain alignment with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), as well as other general improvements.

IPSAS 32 applies to annual financial statements covering periods beginning on or after 1 January 2014, but may be applied earlier. The amendments made by Improvements to IPSASs 2011 are applied for annual financial statements covering periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013, but may be applied earlier.

Click for ifac.org/news-events/2011-10/ipsasb-approves-ipsasb-32-service-concession-arrangements-grantor-and-annual-imp" target="_blank">IPSASB press release (link to IFAC website).