IASB: Request for information on rate regulation

28 March 2013

The IASB issued a Request for Information as an early step in its reactivated Rate-regulated Activities research project. The objective of the Request for Information is to identify a range of rate-regulatory schemes. The deadline for responses is 30 May, 2013.

In July 2009, the IASB published the Exposure Draft Rate-regulated Activities (the ‘2009 ED’), which focused on a particular type of rate-regulatory scheme (a cost-of-service scheme). Respondents to the 2009 ED expressed divergent views as to how the consequences of rate regulation should be reflected in financial statements, if at all. Many suggested that the scope of the project should be expanded to look at a wider variety of rate regulation in order to identify common characteristics from which accounting guidance might be developed. 

The original Rate-regulated Activities project was suspended in September 2010 but has now restarted. The Request for Information asks specific questions about the objectives of rate regulation and how those objectives are reflected in the rate-setting mechanisms employed by rate regulators. The fact patterns identified through this Request for Information and other research will be used to develop a Discussion Paper that will analyse the common features of rate regulation. The aim of the Discussion Paper is to identify what information about the consequences of rate regulation would be most useful for users of IFRS financial statements and whether the IASB should develop specific guidance for accounting for those consequences.

Press release

© IASB - International Accounting Standards Board