All about GRAP Filing for the CIPC Mandate

Introduced in 2018, the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) mandated using iXBRL to reduce the administrative burden on businesses and achieve regulatory compliance, improving transparency for all stakeholders. Starting from 01 October 2021, state-owned companies are compulsorily filing their AFS in iXBRL format using the Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) taxonomy. The following blog discusses everything you must know about GRAP filing for the CIPC mandate.

History of GRAP

Initially, the business entities in the South African region were bound by three accounting standards, i.e., the IFRS, IFRS for SMEs, and SA GAAP, the use of which depended on a company’s Public Interest Score (PI Score). However, due to the similarity between GAAP and IFRS, GAAP was withdrawn in the subsequent years, causing problems for the state-owned companies in the region. While the financial statements of these companies adhered to the GRAP standard, their AFS under the CIPC mandate was based on IFRS. As a result, in October 2020, the CIPC included GRAP standards in the taxonomy revision, widening the gap between GRAP and IFRS.

The GRAP Filing for CIPC Mandate

The Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) standard is issued by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) under section 89 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The business entities required to file their AFS in iXBRL using the GRAP taxonomy include the following:-

Public companies
Trading companies as listed in the PFMA
National, provincial, and Government departments
Constitutional institutions
Municipalities and all entities under their ownership control
Parliament and provisional legislatures

Submission of AFS based on GRAP in the iXBRL Format is Now Possible!

Need for GRAP

All state-owned entities in South Africa mentioned above must adhere to the GRAP standards. It helps ensure that accountants all across South Africa consistently record financial transactions. Moreover, it guarantees that public companies handle their finances transparently.

Comparison of GRAP and IFRS

The Impact of GRAP Standards

From October 2021, all state-owned companies are filing their AFS with CIPC in iXBRL format using the GRAP standards. Adopting this new format has helped companies evaluate past and existing processes, mitigate risks, increase efficiencies, and drive control within their filing procedure.

Understanding GRAP and How Does it Affect South African State-owned Companies?

Seek Professional Assistance:

Staying abreast of the constantly changing filing processes and standards can be arduous and expensive. Therefore, choosing a filing partner that makes your iXBRL submissions with CIPC reliable and hassle-free is important. Partnering with a trusted vendor like DataTracks can help smoothen and simplify your iXBRL submission.

The experts at the company have 18 years of experience in preparing compliant reports for over 21,500 clients. To date, DataTracks has prepared more than 325,000 reports for business enterprises in 26 countries. The best part? DataTracks follows rigorous quality checks, ensuring 100% accuracy in the filing to CIPC. So if error-free reports using the appropriate taxonomy are what you are looking for, get in touch with a DataTracks expert @ +27-10-446-9061 or email enquiry@datatracks.co.za TODAY!