The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently enacted and issued the Circular on Further Ensuring the Smooth Transition between the New and Old Government Accounting Standards and Strengthening the Accounting of Assets of Administrative Organs and Public Institutions (the "Circular").
As for issues related to the transition between new and old government accounting standards, the Circular sets out arrangements in 15 aspects, covering the "implementing scope of the new standards", "accounting scope for the budgeting accounting purpose", "existing public infrastructure that has not been recorded into account books" and "cultural relics and cultural assets". It explicitly states that an administrative body shall, pursuant to requirements for the comprehensive budget management set out by the department to which it belongs, check and calculate for the budget accounting purpose cash receipts and payments that are covered under the department's budget management. Receipts and payments irrelevant to financial grants, which are not included in the budget approved at the beginning of the current year but will be incorporated into the final statements, shall also be checked and calculated for the budget accounting purpose. With regard to the requirements for intensifying the checking and calculation of administrative bodies' assets, the Circular outlines four tasks, one of which is to "straighten out, check, classify and work out statistics for, such assets as fixed assets, intangible assets, stock items and external investments, to provide basic information for the accurate accrual of depreciation, the amortization of expenses and the determination of interests".