Ministry of Economy proposes to make non-financial reporting voluntary – Kommersant
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The Ministry of Economy has prepared a draft order that proposes to abandon mandatory non-financial reporting disclosing indicators in the field of sustainable development, or ESG (environmental, social, governance). Instead, the Ministry of Economy has developed advisory standards. The document leads “Vedomosti”. The authenticity was confirmed by a representative of the department.
The order of the Ministry of Economy was drawn up in anticipation of the publication of the Russian standard for reporting on sustainable development. It is expected that the publication of non-financial reporting will be annual and voluntary. If a company refuses to publish reports, it will have to draw up a motivated justification for the relevant circumstances in a free form.
Last year, the Ministry of Economy had plans to introduce mandatory disclosure of non-financial reporting: the department even developed a corresponding bill. However, according to Interfax, the RSPP and the largest companies were against it. A Vedomosti source reported that the government did not support the idea of finalizing the bill.
In the new order, the Ministry of Economy recommends disclosing non-financial reporting indicators over a retrospective period of at least three years from the beginning of reporting. An independent assessment by auditors is also recommended. Companies will be required to publish it on the website no later than 30 days from the date of disclosure of annual financial statements.
The list of information subject to disclosure includes 44 indicators – economic, environmental, social, and management. They were developed based on UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) standards on sustainable development. At the same time, the indicators take into account national characteristics of the economy – for example, investments in technological sovereignty. Economic indicators include expenditures on scientific research, labor productivity, and green investments.
Environmental indicators, for example, include the volume of water used, pollutant emissions and CO2. Social – wages, average salaries, managerial – the presence of a sustainable development policy, the number of meetings of the board of directors.
The order applies to state-owned companies, large business entities with revenues of more than 10 billion rubles, as well as companies with shares on the stock exchange. Previously, non-financial reporting was disclosed by MMK, Gazprom, Norilsk Nickel, Phosagro, X5 Group, Rostelecom, Mechel, T Plus, VTB, UC Rusal, Severstal, Sber.
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