Moving from Paper to Structured Data Reporting: MCA’s XBRL Journey

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), India mandated annual filings by companies to be submitted electronically via XBRL in 2011. Under the MCA 21 initiative, the organization transitioned from paper filings to online pdf versions and ultimately to data filing using XBRL. The last 3 years have been more than evolutionary. The first year of MCA XBRL filings had its own uncertainties since it was a new concept. The MCA worked to mitigate filers’ apprehensions by offering the MCA XBRL validation tool which helped filers validate their XBRL filings.

However, by the time the stakeholders got familiar with the XBRL taxonomy, software, and services, the MCA mandate was revised the next year. As the new Schedule VI of the Companies Act, of 1956 was introduced, the underlying XBRL taxonomy architecture and modeling were also changed. Additionally, there was an increase in the scope of filing and a number of business rules to be followed for creating the XBRL data.

In the years to come, more companies are expected to come under the XBRL mandate. The MCA has already taken up taxonomy development for new sectors. With developments in the XBRL standard and experiences from other country implementations, we can expect some changes in the XBRL framework.

This white paper studies the MCA’s XBRL journey and what filers can expect in the near future.