The Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the ICAI has issued the Revised Guidance Note on Audit Reports and Certificates for Special Purposes, which supercedes the 1984 edition of this Guidance Note.
ICAI Members are often called upon to issue reports/ certificates for special purposes e.g. reports/ certificates required under the tax laws, Government welfare schemes like MGNREGA, etc.. Sometimes, these special purpose reports/ certificates are also required from the members by the 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’ (hitherto known as “practitioner”) 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). Thus this publication of ICAI provides members with requisite guidance in carrying out such engagements and to issue reports/ certificates for special purposes.
In developing this Guidance Note, the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000, “Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information” issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has been taken as base document and necessary changes have been made to suit the Indian context.
Guidance Note of ICAI on Audit Reports and Certificates for Special Purposes
Can such certificates and reports be issued for entities whose financial statements have not been audited by us ?
Yes, but some certificates and reports are required to be issued only by the statutory auditors of the company, only in such cases you cannot issue unless you are the statutory auditor. In all other cases any chartered accountant in practice can issue such a report and certificates. This can be inferred from the the language used in the guidance note, where in it says, “practitioner” and not an “auditor”.