Disclosure in Financial Statement on the basis of BASs: A Study on Listed Pharmaceutical Companies in Bangladesh

Abstract

International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) has issued IASs IFRSs in order to harmonize financial information of companies & to ensure relevant, reliable, consistent and comparable information for the users. The study evaluates the financial statements in the light of the application of Bangladesh Accounting Standards as issued by the council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) which is a member of IASB. As a member of IASB, ICAB is under obligation to adopt and implement the IASs keeping in view the local legal framework. The analysis in this study involves constructing a disclosure check list (DCL) based on only the BASs, to explain the level of disclosure of the listed pharmaceutical companies according to BASs. The main objectives of the study are to pinpoint the financial reporting practices of the sample pharmaceutical companies and to evaluate the financial statements in the light of BASs. The study' covers only twelve listed pharmaceutical companies and a period from 2007 to 2011. The findings reveal the overall level of disclosure to be high with some fluctuations in different years.