INDIAN CORPORATES AND REPORTING EFFICACY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING

JAIN ANKITA SHAH RUZUTA PURSUING MPHIL S.D.SCHOOL OF COMMERCE GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD-389009 INRODUCTION:

The modern accounting is not only concerned with record keeping and reporting of information to the investors but it aims at fulfilling the information needs of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Since late eighties, due to growing public concern about the alarming impact of industrial activities on nature companies are under pressure from both Government and society to reduce adverse impacts of their activities on the environment. Environmental accounting is defined as the identification, compilation, estimation analysis of environmental cost information for better decision-making within the firm. It can be defined as The generation, analysis, and use of financial and on-financial information in order to optimize corporate, environmental and economic performance, achieving a sustainable business. Protection of environment and the potential involvement of accountants is becoming a common subject of discussion among the accountants all over the world. now a day , accountant are expected to take a proactive role in environmental protection process. With the advent of liberalization, Removal of trade barrier makes it logical that the cost of environmental degradation due to industrial activities should be internalized in corporate accounts to the extent possible. Thats why environmental accounting and reporting thereof is of paramount important today. Environmental accounting is a system that attempts to make the best possible quantitative assessment (in terms of either mo monetary or physical units) of the costs and benefit to an enterprise due to the environmental preservation activities that it undertakes. A very important function of environmental accounting is to bring environmental costs to the managers; therefore, motivating them to identify ways to reduce and avoid economic costs related to the environment and at the same time reduces thecompanys environmental impact.

Key words Environmental accounting and reporting, Indian corporate Literature review Studies on Environmental reporting in India Gautam and Bora (Pramanik A.K, pp 320-333) studied 25 organizations from Assam and found that 13 of them did not have any concern for environmental information disclosure .9 Companies disclosed descriptive type information, covering space from one fourth of a page to one page only. 2 Organizations 8 presented this information pictorially along with description. Only one company gave some financial information on environment in social accounts attached to the annual report .It was concluded that environment al information disclosure by majority of the companies in Assam was confined only to the making of generalized statements with reference to protection of environment, pollution contol,conservation of energy ,and raw material. The felt that quality of disclosure was so poor that users could not use it in decision making.

Kumar p (Environmental Accounting; An Indian Panorama) examined the Indian Scenario towards environmental disclosures by taking a random sample of 6 giants of Indian corporate sector. As regards the accounting and reporting aspects of environmental protection, sample companies made policy statements in their annual reports. Such information was given in the Chairmans report or Director Report in the form of statements. Particulars on Conservation of energy were given by all the selected companies; but no information was given on the expenses incurred, targets set and achieved in respect of natural resources .The study concluded that the environmental reporting in India was limited to little more than a sentence or two each in the annual report. Pradhan and Bal (Ibid pp313-320) collected primary data of a sample of 80 executives during 1997-98,with the help of a structured questionnaire containing 36 questions. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of corporate managers on corporate environmental reporting. Majority of them agreed that a company should disclose information on its environmental policy, environmental audit report, quantifiable future goals and targets on environmental issues, disposal of toxic or hazardous substances and on environmental spending. Forms of environmental accounting

1. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA): Management accounting with a particular focus on material and energy flow information and environmental cost information. This type of accounting can be further classified in the following subsystems: a. Segment Environmental Accounting: This is an internal environmental accounting tool to select an investment activity, or a project, related to environmental conservation from among all processes of operations and to evaluate environmental effects for a certain period. b. Eco Balance Environmental Accounting: This is an internal environmental accounting tool to support PDCA for sustainable environmental Management activities. c. Corporate Environmental Accounting: This is a tool to inform the public of relevant information compiled in accordance with the Environmental Accounting. It should be called as Corporate Environmental Reporting. For this purpose the cost and effect (in quantity and monetary value) of its environmental conservation activities are used. 2. Environmental Financial Accounting (EFA): Financial Accounting with a particular focus on reporting environmental liability costs and other significant environmental costs. 3. Environmental National Accounting (ENA): National Level Accounting with a particular focus on natural resources stocks & flows, environmental costs & externality costs etc. Need of Environmental Accounting at Corporate Level. It helps to know whether corporation has been discharging its responsibilities towards environment or not. Basically, a company has to fulfill following environmental responsibilities: a. Meeting regulatory requirements or exceeding that expectation. b. Cleaning up pollution that already exists and properly disposing of the Hazardous material. c. Disclosing to the investors both potential & current, the amount and nature of the preventative measures taken by the management (disclosure required if the estimated liability is greater than a certain percent say 10 percent of the companies net worth). d. Operating in a way that those environmental damages does not occur. e. Promoting a company having wide environmental attitude. f Control over operational & material efficiency gains driven by the competitive global market. g. Control over increases in costs for raw materials, waste management and Potential liability. Objectives of Environmental Accounting

Environmental Accounting is required to fulfill a lot of demands from stakeholders. However, for academic reasons the following basic objectives can be identified and the logical ground: 1. Environmental a: renting would aid the discharge; of the organizations accountability and increase its environmental transparency. 2. It helps negotiation of the concept of environment and determines the company's relationship with the society general and the environmental pressure group inparticular. This helps an organization seeking to strategically manage 2 new and emerging issue with its Stakeholders. 3. Because of the ethical investment movement, ethical investors require die companies to be environmentally friendly. Therefore. by upholding friendly image, companies may be successful a attracting fund from 'peen' individuals2nd groups; 4. Environmental accounting consumerism movement launched by the environmental lobby groups encourages me consumers to purchase the environmentally friendly products. i.e.. Green products Companies. Thus producing green products may tie competitive marketing advantage by disclosing the same. 5. By making environmental disclosures, companies may show their commitments towards introduction 2nd ch2nge 2nd thus appear to be responsive to new factors. 6. Companies engaged m environmentally unfriendly industries 2rcse strong public emotion There is strong environmental lobby against these iniasy.es. Green reporting may be used to combat potentially negative public opinions; 7. By cultivating the enlighten approach of environmental accounting companies can increase their image of being enlightened to the outside world 2nd this, can beregarded as enlightened companies.

Benefits of Environmental Accounting The benefits of undertaking an environmental accounting initiative is that the identification and greater awareness of environment related costs often provides the opportunity to find ways to reduce or avoid these costs, whilst also improving environmental performance More elaborately,

environmental accounting is an effect tool for placing environment issues firmly can top management's agenda, providing useful data to inform environmental and financial managers' decision-makings 2nd concretely demonstrating environmental commitment to stakeholders. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adds the following benefits: 1. Many environmental problems can be significantly reduced or eliminated as a result of effective decisions. 2 Environmental cost (and potential savings) may be obscured in overheads or otherwise overlooked. 3 Environmental costs can be offset by generating revenues through sale of waste or byproducts or recycling them. 4 Understanding of environmental costs can promote more accurate costing and pricing of products; 5 Competitive advantage with customers CAN result from processes, products and Services which can be demonstrated to be environmentally friendly. 6. Accounting for environmental costs and performance can support a company's development and operation of an overall environmental management system. Scope of Environmental Accounting The scope of Environmental Accounting (EA) is very wide. It includes corporate level, national & international level. The following aspects are included in EA: 1. From Internal point of view investment made by the corporate sector for minimization of losses to environment. It includes investment made into the environment saving equipment/ devices. This type of accounting is easy as money measurement is possible. 2. From external point of view all types of loss are indirectly due to business operation/activities. It mainly includes: a. Degradation and destruction like soil erosion, loss of bio diversity, air pollution, water pollution, voice pollution, problem of solid waste, coastal &marine pollution b. Depletion of nonrenewable natural resources i.e. loss emerged due to over exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources like minerals, water, gas, etc.

c. Deforestation and Land uses. This type of accounting is not easy, as losses to environment cannot be measured exactly in monetary value. Further, it is very hard to decide that how much loss was occurred to the environment due to a particular industry. For this purpose approx idea can be given or other measurement of loss like quantity of non-renewable natural sources used. Data analysis and Findings

Data Analysis:
The present study is exploratory in nature. It is based on secondary data. The secondary information for analyzing the data has been obtained from databases like the web sites of the respective companies. Annual Reports of Top 40 companies as listed in National Stock Exchange of India(NSE) Were studied of the year 2010-11 to analyze their environmental disclosure practices. . And it has been evaluated that

amongst these 26 companies gives information about environmental reporting which are as follows.
List of 26 companies which have been studied:

26 Companies Disclosing E.A. Reliance Industries Ltd. Ambuja Cements Limited Dr. Reddy's Laboratories

Bharti Airtel Limited

Cipla Limited

Glaxosmithkline Pharma Ltd Tata chemicals

Essar oil limited Bharat petroleum corporation limited DFM foods ltd BAJAJ AUTO LTD. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited Hcl Technologies Limited Power Grid Corporation Of India Hindalco Industries Limited Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd ABB Limited Reliance Energy Ltd, Siemens Limited ACC Limited Reliance Communications Limited ICICI Bank Limited Infosys Technologies Larsen & Toubro Limited Bhel State Bank Of India

Steel Authority Of India

Disclosure of Environmental Reporting of few companies

Bharti Airtel Annual Report 2010-11 HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT Bharti Airtel follows a comprehensive Health, Safety and Environment Management policy to maintain safe and incidence-free work places. GREEN INITIATIVES We constantly explore ways and means to reduce our carbon footprint. We have been running power saving programmes in our offices and network operations for over six years now. These programmes have helped conserve energy, reduce green house gas emission, and reduce costs. A. Green Shelter for BTS We have pioneered the Green Shelter concept for BTS. This unique shelter comes with optimal cooling, power and thermal management systems, thereby minimizing the running of backup systems like diesel generator sets. The solution reduces the operational cost by as much as 40% as compared to conventional shelters and avoids contributing to global warming by minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. B. Programme GOOD (Get out of Diesel) To reduce diesel consumption at our sites we pursued programme GOOD during the year. Under this programme, 500 sites in Bihar have been taken up for Solar PV technology implementation despite a Non-Favorable Financial Model. Similarly, other technological interventions like DG Optimization, IPMS (Integrated Power Management Solution), and DCDG were implemented to reduce the diesel footprint at our network sites. IPMS and variable speed DC Generators (DCDG) has led to an annual reduction of 1.2 Mn liters in Diesel Consumption across 900 sites. Apart from this, we pursued a number of other opportunities such as using bio-diesel in 13 Andhra Pradesh, fuel cells is Haryana and UP, and Biomass-based electricity generation in Bihar, to reduce diesel dependency on a long-term basis.

C. Green Tower P7 Program me This programme is scoped for 22,000 towers sites, primarily rural areas having low or no Grid power availability. Of this nearly 5,500 sites have already been implemented in the rst year as a part of this 3year program me. Once completed, this initiative will reduce diesel consumption by 58 Mn litres per year, with a significant carbon dioxide reduction of around 1.5 Lakh metric tonnes per year. D. Managed Energy Services We commenced Managed Energy Services with Wipro Eco Energy covering all our facilities in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Under this initiative, Wipro will monitor the energy consumption pattern at the facilities, identify and implement energy-saving measures for targeted consumption reduction. E. E-Waste Management We have expanded the scope of e-waste management by including network/eld e-waste. During the year we disposed 407K tons of network e-waste through authorized re-cyclers. We comply with the disposal of e-waste as per applicable WEEE norms. F. Other Energy Reducing Initiatives A number of initiatives were launched in our offices and in other technical facilities last year to reduce energy consumption in lighting and air conditioning. A Solar Hot Water Generator was installed at the Airtel Campus to full hot water requirement in the cafeteria. Lighting Energy Savers (LES) have also been installed across our facilities in the National Capital Region. This has reduced our energy consumption by around 10-25%. Variable Frequency Drives were installed in the Air Handling Unit (AHU) at Airtel Centre Campus to improve the efficiency of the cooling system by 10%. These measures have resulted in savings of 8.5 Lakh units of electricity per year, for the Company. We have started the virtualization of servers. This has helped us release over 500 CPUs. Additionally we are moving towards Cloud-based services. Technologies like Virtual Tape Library and the replacement of teradata with DB2 have added to multiple hardware releases. G. E-Bills Sending e-bills to our post-paid customers has been a huge success. Today over 2 Million e-bills are being sent per month. This has significantly contributed towards our go-green drive and saved 24,000

trees annually. We have also implemented a Secure Print solution - an automated queue-management based secure printing solution which has led to an annualized saving of ~ 8 tonnes of paper.

Essar oil limited Environment

The area housing the Vadinar refinery borders on the Gulf of Kutch coastline and is naturally arid. The company initiated a self-sustainable, 700-acre greenbelt area around the refinery. It contains more than 300,000 saplings that offer a carbon sink along the refinery complex as well as improving the aesthetics of the region. As a Group we realise that our response to climate change is a deciding factor in our business performance. It is imperative to have a structured approach to carbon management to manage the impact of climate regulations on our organizations growth and profitability. Key drivers to our climate change strategy shall include regulation, stakeholder expectations, revenue generation and cost reduction. At Essar Oil, have taken several steps towards reducing CO2 emissions by replacing some high carbon intensive fuel oil with natural gas in refinery furnaces and in the boilers of captive power plants. Power is a vital part of our energy system. Because generating power from natural gas, rather than coal based plant, significantly reduces CO2 emissions. EOL has chosen natural gas-based power plant for its refinery expansion.. We have begun GHG accounting as per the American Petroleum Institute (API) compendium GHG Protocol for Oil and Gas Sector and IPIECA Guidelines - to measure the carbon footprint of our operations in Vadinar. We are also participating in the CDP forum, which shows our efforts/commitment to be transparent. Simultaneously Essar Oil has been investing in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects for the last few years. We already have one CDM project registered at UNFCCC while seven other CDM projects are in the pipeline with a total estimated reduction of the order of about 1 million tonnes of CO2. Reusing resources; At the Vadinar refinery a kitchen waste bio gas plant has been constructed to generate fuel and contribute to energy conservation. Waste cut grass is used for composting. Good quality manure is produced and used to improve the green belt.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited

Mission: Promote ecology, environmental up gradation and national heritage NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY INITIATIVES BPCL has taken several steps to develop non-conventional/ renewable sources of energy and has undertaken various initiatives in tapping non-conventional energy sources like bio-diesel, bio-ethanol, wind energy, solar energy and fuel cells.BPCL has been exploring the possibility of promoting green fuels with a view to protect the environment by reducing pollution and dependency on imported fuels. In the State of Uttar Pradesh, BPCL has launched the Bio-diesel Value Chain project for which a Joint Venture Company, Bharat Renewable Energy Limited has

been incorporated. As on 31st March, 2011, the Company has identified about 1 lakh acres (40469 hectares) of waste / arid land, out of which 3122 acres (1263.44 hectares) of Jatropha plantation has been done across the State. The Joint Venture Company has also signed agreements with Panchayats for 52,000 acres (21043.88 hectares) of land. BPCL is also in discussion with the State Governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to set up BioDiesel Value Chains in these states.BPCL in coordination with the Government of Karnataka has identified the location at Bio-fuel Technology Park, Hassan for setting up a Green Fuel Retail Outlet (GFRO) jointly with the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka. Bio-diesel will be supplied by the Technology Park to the Retail Outlet and blended Bio-diesel will be marketed through this outlet.BPCL has been one of the first oil companies to successfully generate power through windmills. This was one of the projects identified to avail of carbon emission credits under the Kyoto protocol. BPCL has plans to make further investments in windmills in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. A 1 MW capacity grid connected solar farm is being set up at BPCLs LPG bottling plant in Lalru, in the state of Punjab. RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED Environment In its pursuit of excellence towards sustainable development and to go beyond compliance. All environmental initiatives were addressed to the Companys long term objective of becoming water positive, carbon neutral and conduct the maximum possible recycling and reuse of wastes. A management framework with defined structures, roles and responsibilities, group standards, audits and training has further been strengthen. Environment impact assessment and risk analysis have been performed for all new and major expansion projects. In this context, this year the
Company has also developed Reliance Industries Limited 47and issued a RIL group standard and second party audit protocol on Environmental requirements for new projects with an objective to incorporate necessary measures to mitigate adverse environmental impact at the planning stage of project implementation.RIL continues to give top priority to maintenance and performance

improvements of all pollution abatement facilities like effluent treatment plants, inside battery limits area, air emission control and waste disposal facilities at its manufacturing divisions. Rainwater harvesting and treated effluent recycling is being carried out at most manufacturing divisions to reduce water dependence on other natural sources. RIL has changed over to use of cleaner fuel at Patalganga, Jamnagar manufacturing divisions.. Training, awareness and learning have been always at the forefront of RILs journey to become world class in environmental

performance..All manufacturing divisions celebrated the World Environment Day, Earth Day,
Water Day, Ozone Day, etc and created environmental awareness among employees and surrounding communities and schools. Trained and qualified internal auditors perform internal

environmental audits of the environment management system at regular intervals. RIL has inculcated a habit to be in harmony with nature and in this context, a forestation, maintenance of green belts, gardens, vermi-compost of waste and its use as manure, reuse of treated water in horticulture activities are routine. RIL is committed to creating greenery in and around the KGD6 project site by developing a green belt and promoting lush green surroundings at the OT, Gadimoga to be in harmony with nature. The green belt is being carried out at the OT site, Infrastructure area at Gadimoga terminal, haul road and all yards as well as the Vakalapudi shore base terminal site with a cumulative plantation of over 1,00,000 plants

GlaxoSmithKline Pharma ltd

Caring for the environment: We will operate in an environmentally responsible manner through systematic management of our environmental impacts, measurement of our performance and setting challenging performance targets. We will improve the efficiency of all our activities to minimize material and energy use and waste generated. We aim to nd opportunities to use renewable materials and to recycle our waste. Environmental sustainability: We are committed to integrating environmental sustainability into our business, especially conserving resources and addressing climate change. We see this as an opportunity as well as a responsibility. Strategy and plans We revised our environmental sustainability strategy in 2010, building on the strategy originally introduced in 2001. The new strategy recognizes our impacts across the entire value chain, from raw materials to the disposal of our products. Our objective is to benet the environment, engage employees in tackling key issues and benet GSK nancially potentially saving 100 million a year by 2020 through reduced energy, materials and distribution costs. Analysis of GSKs impacts shows that we need to concentrate in three main areas: Carbon dioxide and other emissions that contribute to climate change. Water use

 Environmental stewardship, which covers the use of materials, generation of waste and pollution. We have set ambitious goals for key impacts, including a 25% reduction in our carbon footprint, a 20% reduction in water use across the value chain and zero waste to landll, all by 2020. The targets are detailed in our Corporate Responsibility report. Climate change and energy We met our goal of eliminating the use of chlorouorocarbons (CFCs) in our products by the end of 2010. This has reduced greenhouse emissions associated with our inhaler products from 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 1998 to approximately 4.7 million tonnes in 2010. In 2010 we reduced energy consumption for operations and transport by 5.5% and greenhouse gas emissions by 5.8% relative to sales. The cumulative reduction for 2006-2010 is 9.1% for energy and 10.7% for emissions.A central fund to nance energy saving projects has accelerated progress since 2007. In 2010 we completed 188 projects, which will avoid around 52,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. We are also increasing investment in on-site generation of renewable energy, supported by a renewable energy fund created in 2010. GSK Consumer Healthcare installed North Americas largest roof mounted solar photo voltaic system at its regional distribution centre in York, Pennsylvania. It will save nearly 1,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. GSKs global operations were certied to Carbon Trust
Standard in 2010, the rst company to achieve this recognition of excellence in carbon management for all global operations.

Water: we recognize that GSK can play a positive role in managing it more sustainably. We endorsed the United Nations CEO Water Mandate in 2009. In 2010 we reduced water consumption by almost 500 million litres despite signicant business growth in our vaccines manufacturing business. Net water consumption fell by 1.6% per 1 of sales, a cumulative reduction of 15.7% since 2006, exceeding our target of 10%.We also exceeded our targets for improving the quality of waste water. Environmental stewardship. We aim to use materials efficiently and safely, minimizing waste and pollution and avoiding harm to people and the environment. Our long-term aspiration is to achieve 5% mass efficiency by 2020 for new pharmaceutical products transferred from R&D to manufacturing. The average mass efficiency for new products during the 2006-2010 period has reached 3.3%.Improvements in the efficiency of solvent use also reduced the amount of volatile organics released to air by 12.8% per 1 of sales in 2010, cumulatively 35.8% since 2006.Packaging provides opportunities to conserve resources and in 2010 we began to implement the sustainable packaging strategy developed in 2009. We also began to update our green packaging guide for designers and managers. In 2010, the US American Institute of Chemical Engineers presented its Industrial Practice Award in Sustainable Engineering to our

operational sustainability team for its work embedding sustainability into R&D and manufacturing. Environmental management: We manage environmental issues (as well as occupational health and safety) using a management system aligned with recognized international standards. Each business is accountable for its own sustainability plans and performance. Our central audit group includes environmental issues in its routine audits of our sites and business processes. We are working increasingly closely with suppliers and contract manufacturers to reduce environmental impacts from the supply chain.

Findings:
From the above analysis the findings can be summarized in the following points: 1 Most polluting industries disclose significantly more information on Environment related issues than less polluting industries. 2 Extent of environmental reporting in various industries is different 3 Companies having foreign association disclose more information on environmental issues than domestic companies. 4 Environmental information disclosures is positively related to the size of the Companies. 5 Environmental information disclosures by group and non-group companies are different. 6 An increase in the profitability influences the reporting on environment positively 7 High debt to equity ratios leads to increased reporting on environmental Issues. 8 The environmental performance of the company also influences positively the extent of reporting. 9. The above disclosed companies has mentioned about their environmental accounting and reporting in fairly better manner compared to other companies.
Length of Voluntary Environment Disclosure: Percentage of companies reporting voluntarily on the issue has increased over the period. As observed the companies, particularly those operating in the most polluting industries, might have been pressurized by the interested stakeholders (including investors, creditors, and government) to disclose information on environment. About 40 percent of the companies have made disclosure of less than a half page in their annual reports. The length of disclosure for most companies range from 2-3 lines to a half page. However some large companies give this information in detail in the separate environmental sections.

Limitations of environmental accounting

EA suffers from various serious limitations as follows: 1. There is no standard accounting method. 2. Comparison between two firms or countries is not possible if method of accounting is different which is quite obvious. 3. Input for EA is not easily available because costs and benefits relevant to the environment are not easily measurable. 4. Many business and the Government organizations even large and well managed ones dont adequately track the use of energy and material or the cost of inefficient materials use, waste management and related issue. Many organizations, therefore, significantly underestimate the cost of poor environment performance to their organization. 5. It mainly considers the cost internal to the company and excludes cost to society. 6. EA is a long-term process. Therefore, to draw a conclusion with help of it is not easy. 7. EA cannot work independently. It should be integrated with the financial accounting, which is not easy. 8. EA must be analyzed along with other aspects of accounting. Because costs and benefits related to the environment itself depend upon the results of the financial accounting, management accounting, cost accounting, tax accounting, national accounting, etc. 9. The user of information contained in the EA needs adequate knowledge of the process of EA as well as rules and regulations prevailing in that country either directly or indirectly related to Environmental aspects.

Suggestions 1. The findings suggest that the main reason for non-disclosure of the environmental information by the Indian companies is its voluntary nature. It is strongly recommended that environmental reporting should be made mandatory in India. 2. Companies in India should be asked to submit the detailed environmental information to the government regarding emission of specific toxic chemicals, pollutants, bodies at national levels should develop a separate conceptual framework on EAR specifying the objectives, general assumptions, qualitative characteristics and guidelines for the companys effluents, damage to the environment and the community health.

3. A clause in the listing agreement may be inserted by SEBI for environmental compliance laws. 4. Companies should calculate and report some specific ratios indicating their environmental performance. These ratios, being relative measure may be used for comparing the performance of the companies on environmental related issues. 5. It is recommended that professional accounting bodies at national levels should develop a separate conceptual framework on EAR specifying the objectives, general assumptions, qualitative characteristics and guidelines for the companies. Reporting in India In the context of requiring environmental related information from business on a periodic basis the first public announcement was made by the Central Government in 1991. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has proposed that "Every company shall, in the Report of its Board of Directors, disclose briefly the particulars of steps taken or proposed to be taken towards adoption of clean technologies for prevention of pollution, waste minimization, waste re-cycling and utilization, pollution control measures, investment on environmental protection and impact of these measures on waste reduction, water and other resource conservation. The Companies Bill. 1997. Section 173 had proposed that every company should disclose through its Board of Directors' Report the measures taken for the protection of environment. A Gazette Notification on Environmental Audit has been issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 03.03.1992 (amended vide Notification GSR 386 (E) dated. 22.04.1993) (India: Environment Statement. As part of Environment Audit. Government of India. 1993). The notification requires submission of an Environment Statement to the Pollution Control Board (PCB). This notification is applicable to any person carrying on an industry, operation or process requiring consent to operate by under Section 25 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, under Section 211 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act. 1981 or both, or authorization under the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1987, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. In the environment statement, the concerned industry is required to provide information on: 1. Water and Raw Material consumption;

Reliance Industries Ltd. Ambuja Cements Limited

2. 3.

Pollution generated: Nature of hazardous waste and solid waste and disposal

practice: and 4. Impact of pollution control measures on conservation of

natural resources. But, it is a matter of strange that such information are still not being required by the Government to be publicly disclosed through annual report. Consequently, till date, any disclosures on environmental matter in the annual report of Indian companies are voluntary in nature. Conclusion The finding of the study reveals that companies are well aware of the facts that environmental issues will affect the business and industry in the near future. They are fully convinced of the need for environmental information. Despite this awareness, there is an absence of external environmental accounting. The companies in India do not have a proper environmental accounting system to determine the environment related costs, benefits, assets and liabilities. Indian companies fail to provide adequate disclosure on the environment. Without any strict accounting pronouncements from the ICAI and disclosure norms by the regulatory authorities, the companies generally provide only statutorily required, qualitative, and positive information on environment. It can be concluded that there is a low level of EAR activity in India. The accounting profession and the companies has yet to respond to these issues and learnt a lot in dealing with the environmental matters in the books of accounts.
Reference 1. Environmental accounting and reporting_An analysis of Indian corporate sector by Dr.v k gupta 2.

3. Annual reports 2010-11 of foll. Companies:

1. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Bharti Airtel Limited Cipla Limited Glaxosmithkline Pharma Ltd Tata chemicals Essar oil limited Bharat petroleum corporation limited DFM foods ltd BAJAJ AUTO LTD. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited Hcl Technologies Limited Power Grid Corporation Of India Hindalco Industries Limited Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd ABB Limited Reliance Energy Ltd, Siemens Limited ACC Limited

Reliance Communications Limited ICICI Bank Limited Infosys Technologies Larsen & Toubro Limited Bhel State Bank Of India

Steel Authority Of India