The Accounting Standards Board of South Africa (ASB) issued various amendments to GRAP Standards of which the Minister of Finance approved some to be effective in Government Gazette No.44881 on 13 August 2021. Entities applying GRAP are required1 to disclose the impact of these in their financial statements.

Often these amendments have little or no impact on the accounting policies applied. However, when an entity applies these for the first time in its financial statements, and it impacts the accounting policies previously applied, it is required to disclose the impact in the financial statements23. Also, whilst it is not effective, the impact on the financial statements will need to be assessed and disclosed in accordance with GRAP 3.

For example, the ASB recently issued the Guideline on The Application of Materiality to Financial Statements which is approved but not yet effective. If an entity applies the guideline for the first time and chooses to voluntary amend any accounting policies as a result, it would be required to disclose the nature of the change in accounting policy, reasons why the new policy provides more reliable information and for the current and each prior periods presented, the impact and adjustments for every line item affected. For initial application of any required change in accounting policy, the entity is required to disclose the title of the Standard affected.

Standards, Guidelines and Interpretations issued and not yet effective in 2022 to consider.

GRAP 3 requires disclosure of known or reasonable estimable information relevant in assessing the possible impact that any new Standard will have on the entity’s financial statements when the entity applies it for the first time.

Due to the significant changes in GRAP 104 and GRAP 25 it is likely that these changes will significantly impact entities. Whilst it may be difficult to quantity the impact, qualitative disclosures should still be provided to meet the objectives of GRAP 3. Every change should be assessed as it may impact recognition, measurement and disclosure. Presenting the information in a table may also assist.

Below examples are not complete, nor exhaustive of all the standards, guidelines and interpretations issued and not yet effective, but rather an example to illustrate how the analysis could be performed: