Govt Makes It Mandatory For Firms To Disclose Investments In Cryptocurrencies, Record Audit Trail From 1 April

In a significant development, the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Thursday (25 March) has made it mandatory for all Indian companies to declare their investments in cryptocurrencies, reports Economic Times.

The companies would need to disclose details of the profit or loss on transactions involving cryptocurrencies, amounts of such currency held and deposits or advances from any person for trading or investing in these currencies.

This comes at a time when the government is said to be working on a cryptocurrency bill.

The disclosure rules under the companies act would kick-in from 1 April, and would also require the companies to disclose their relationships with dissolved companies and loans extended to related parties. They will also have to compulsorily disclose if they have been declared wilful defaulters by banks, financial institutions or other lenders.

The new set of disclosures also include the need for companies to record audit trails of their accounts. As a result of this, firms using accounting software to maintain their books will need to use features that can record the audit trail of each transaction and create an edit log, including the date of such changes.