ICAI Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016)

The Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of ICAI has released the “Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016)”, thoroughly revised edition of the Guidance Note on Audit Reports and Certificates for Special Purposes issued in 1984.

The Guidance Note provides guidance on engagements which require practitioners to  issue reports/certificates for special purposes (viz reports/ certificates required under various laws and statutes or by management of the entities for their own purposes).

The purpose of this Guidance Note is to provide guidance on engagements which require a ‘professional accountant in public practice’ to issue reports other than those which are issued in audits or reviews of historical financial information.

The reports which are issued pursuant to audits or reviews of historical financial information are dealt with in Standards on Auditing (SAs) and Standards on Review Engagements (SREs), respectively, issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

In some cases, Government and other authorities under various statutes or notifications require reports or certificates from practitioners in support of statements or other information provided by an entity. Such reports or certificates can also be required to be issued to fulfill a contractual reporting obligation or may be required by the management or those charged with governance of an entity for its own special purposes.

Sometimes, the applicable law and regulation or a contractual arrangement that an entity might have entered into, prescribe the wording of report or certificates. The wording often requires the use of word or phrase like “certify” or “true and correct” to indicate absolute level of assurance expected to be provided by the practitioner on the subject matter. Absolute assurance indicates that a practitioner has performed procedures as considered appropriate to reduce the engagement risk to zero.

The complete text of the Guidance Note is enclosed herewith for your ready reference. It has also been hosted on ICAI’s website at the following URL:

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