DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION ON ESTIMATED OBLIGATIONS RELATED TO ENSURING ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY IN REPORTING
The issues of accounting and disclosure of reporting information on estimated obligations arising from the requirements of legislation or the usual practice of an economic entity in relation to environmental pollution fines, the costs of carrying out measures to clean up discharges and emissions, waste, and the costs of decommissioning long-term assets that cause damage to the environment are considered. Based on the system analysis method, a comparative analysis of the provisions of regulatory acts in the field of accounting and reporting work in Russia and International accounting and financial reporting standards has been conducted. Using the methods of observation and sampling, an assessment is made of the practice of generating information in the financial statements of Russian oil and gas companies on the existence and change of obligations related to environmental protection and environmental safety. Approaches to the choice of a determining method the discount rate when recognizing a long-term environmental liability and the procedure for accounting of changes in the amount of the estimated obligation related to environmental activities and ensuring the environmental safety of the company are proposed. Proposals for the modification of the current Russian accounting treatment of estimated obligations in reflecting changes in their values to make it according to the IFRS requirements and provide users with more useful information for making economic decisions.
Keywords;accounting of environmental costs, analysis of environmental safety costs, estimated obligations, features of the occurrence and performance of environmental obligations of economic entities.
Highlights:
♦ the article substantiates the need to analyze the negative impact of the Russian oil and gas industry on the environment in order to identify the characteristics of the environmental component of the industry’s companies;
♦ the structure of estimated obligations related to environmental protection and environmental safety disclosed by oil and gas companies in separate and consolidated statements has been determined;
♦ approaches to determining the discount rate in the obligation to decommission oil and gas assets in oil and gas industry companies are analyzed;
♦ the procedure for reflecting of accounting and reporting changes in the value of the estimated obligation for decommissioning oil and gas assets, which provides for a reasonable distribution of expenses for the formation of the obligation between reporting periods, is proposed.
Tatyana À. Korneeva, Doctor of Economics, Professor at Samara State University of Economics.