The Bombay edition of The Times dated 15th May, 2008 carried a news item concerning a bribe allegedly offered to a member of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal based in Kolkata by an advocate. Several outstation newspapers and magazines (though not Bombay based publications) have reported subsequent developments.

An inquiry conducted by chairman VAT Tribunal Punjab Justice M.M. Aggarwal (retired) into the conduct of two fellow members of the tribunal in a specific case has found both officials guilty of reversing their own orders with the presumption that the same has been done for “extraneous considerations”.

The work of formulating down accounting standards for the companies operating in India was initiated when the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), a statutory body regulating the accounting profession in the country, first took up this task in 1977. However, the accounting standards prepared and issued by the ICAI were mandatory only for its members, who, while discharging their audit function, were required to examine whether the said standards of accounting were complied with. With the amendment of the Companies Act, 1956 through the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1999, accounting standards as well as the manner in which they were to be prescribed, were provided a statutory backing.