THE Malaysian Accounting Standards Board MASB will introduce new Islamic accounting standards as early as in the first quarter of 2005, its executive director Dr Nordin Mohd Zain said.

MASB, which is the technical body with the sole authority to issue standards in Malaysia, had already established four working committees to work on the four different Islamic accounting standards it planned to introduce.

Speaking to Business Times yesterday, Nordin said the standards on ijarah (leasing) would be first to be introduced. Its exposure draft is expected to be ready by June this year.

The process, he added, is almost 60 per cent completed.

Upon its completion, the exposure draft will be distributed to the public for analysis before further development on the standards is undertaken by the working committee, and finally approved for publication.

The whole process, Nordin said, will take a few months and the ijarah standards are expected to be ready for issuance within the first quarter of next year.

In addition to the standards on ijarah, the board also plans to introduce standards on zakat (tax), murabahah (deferred sales) and takaful (insurance) in the near future.

“(The committee) is not established at the same time. As and when there is a need to issue standards, the board will decide. They are 30 per cent completed right now,” he clarified on the standards formulation progress.

Nordin who also sits on the board of the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial In-stitutions (AAOFI), said Malaysia is also working closely with AAOFI in formulating the standards.

“I do meet them regularly and we discuss issues of importance,” he said.

Nordin said the board is also collaborating with other entities such as Bank Negara Malaysia and Zakat Collection Centre, in formulating the new standards.

In December 2001, MASB issued the Islamic Accounting Standards, which took effect in January last year.

MASB chairman Datuk Zainal Abidin Putih said the issuance of these new standards will help build confidence among the public as they are assured that the standards have been set up in a fashion that are in line with the globally-accepted Islamic values.

“We are not trying to converge Islamic accounting standards with conventional accounting because they come from different platforms. They are not replaceable with one another,” he said during a media briefing on international accounting standards in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

At the same time, Zainal said Malaysia is currently teaming up with the accounting bodies of New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong to put together standards, which in turn would be presented to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Upon the approval of this standards proposal, countries currently using the lASB accounting standards will adopt them in their practices.

“Every country that accepts the international accounting standards will then use that as their standards, it is not just for Asia or for these four countries. These countries initiated it and if adopted by the IASB, it become the standards for the whole world,” he added.

IASB is an independent, standard-setter based in London. The board cooperates with national accounting standard-setters to achieve convergence in accounting standards around the world.

The European countries are slated to adopt the unified accounting standards in 2005, while the US is expected to converge its accounting standards with that of the IASB's by 2007.

At present, 91 countries use the IASB accounting standards on one form or another. It is estimated that within the next three to four years, the standards will be fully adopted worldwide.