Drafts of new standards announced

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KATHMANDU, Feb 7: Responding to the call of the government for gradual adoption of international level accounting standards and practices, the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nepal (ICAN) today announced the completion of draft of five accounting standards and two auditing standards.

According to a press release issued by ICAN here today, the standards, developed on the basis of international standards, are being considered by ICAN for gradual implementation by the Nepali accounting professionals and the corporate sector.

The evolvement of the standards is the result of a development programme to improve accounting and auditing in Nepal sponsored by the Asian Development Bank with a Technical Assistance programme, states the release.

Seminar on SCCs held

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KATHMANDU, Feb 7: With an objective of sharing the findings of a study on Best Practices in delivering Financial and Social Intermediation Through Women-only Savings and Credit Cooperatives of Nepal, Centre for Micro-Finance (CMF) organised a two-day seminar in the capital today.

The findings of the study shows that as financial intermediaries, Savings Credit Cooperatives (SCCs) are able to meet only some practical financial needs of their members, specifically the basic savings and credit services.

However, members expect their SCCs to provide more financial services. They expect it to come in the forms of affordable and regularly available credit loans, funds for meeting the expenses of illness, reproductive health and accidents, and funds for increasing the stability of their savings and loans.

Similarly, the study shows that as social intermediaries, the self-promoted SCCs plays only a linking role, as they do not have financial capacity to provide those services.

SCCs members in poor countries like Nepal expect their cooperatives to work not just as a financial intermediary, but also as a social intermediary. Therefore, it is ‘extremely’ important that such SCCs attain a certain level of financial capacity.

The study has also suggested strengthening the capability in financial management and investment including the identification, design and delivery of other financial products and services.

Speaking on the occasion, Hari Krishna Upadhyaya, vice chairman of CMF, said that there has been paradigm shift in the role of the government in the post 1990s as the role of government has shrunk. A positive trend has set in cooperatives movement, but its sustainability, in terms of financial, social and institutional, is a very sensitive matter, he added.

CMF commissioned the study under its Mahila Jagaran (Women Awakening) project with financial support from the Canadian Cooperative Association (CCA). A total of 60 men and women participated in the seminar.