Privatisation a nd Evolution o f Standard Setting in Iran

84 Privatisation a nd Evolution o f Standard Setting in Iran

s t a n d a r d s e t t i n g e n v i r o n m e n t in t h e r e c e n t y e a r s . T h e p a p e r s h o w s h o w p r o f e s s i o n a l i s m p e r s u a d e s h a r m o n i s a t i o n in r e s p o n d t o p r i v a t i s a t i o n n e e d s in the statutory environment of the country. In addition to the formal authority of the IAO in standards setting, the Sole Article of 1993 which produce sanction for government to be able to use auditing and accounting services of individual q u a l i f i e d p r o f e s s i o n a l s o p e n a n e w e r a in s t a n d a r d s e t t i n g in I r a n . T h e n e w l y reorganised standards setting board make use of the provided opportunity to set internationally harmonised accounting standards while making allowance for local socio-economic environment. Moreover, government ambitions for swift

economic development persuading foreign and local private investors tended to continue the pressure on high authorities to begin the third wave of privatising w h i c h p r o d u c e s n e w c h a l l e n g e s f o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l h a r m o n i s a t i o n in a c c o u n t i n g standards setting. This paper demonstrated that to the end of 2006, from total of

28 NASs, 18 of them are similar to IASs while 8 others include some

d i f f e r e n c e s in c o m p a r i n g t o I A S s a n d t h e l a s t t w o h a v e n o I A S s e q u i v a l e n t . T h e paper also illustrated that 22 out of 33 Iran Auditing Standards are exactly the s a m e a s I F R S s w h i l e 11 o t h e r s i n c l u d e s o m e d i f f e r e n c e s .

It is shown that privatisation have benefited from a strong statutory position. Based on implicit constitutional recommendation, the third wave of p r i v a t i z a t i o n w a s i n t r o d u c e d in 2 0 0 6 . I n t h i s w a v e o f p r i v a t i s a t i o n , T S E

a s s u m e d t o p l a y a n i m p o r t a n t r o l e i n m a r k e t i n g g o v e r n m e n t s h a r e s w h i l e it required listed companies to use accounting and auditing standards in preparing financial reports. Tnisted auditors of TSE have to provide professional opinion

on the bases of auditing standards. At the present stipulation of accounting standard setting, privatisation provide a millstone in international accounting standard harmonisation due to the level of accounting professionalism and government desires of foreign investment for economic development.