Valuing trees the Lankan way

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekara

Guidelines for valuing biological assets in managed plantations set up by the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAAMB) in discussion with other regulators will be launched this year.

“It is called the Guidelines for the Valuation of Biological Assets (GVBA) in managed plantations and we issued an exposure draft with invitation for comments last December,” Ajith Ratnayake, Director General SLAASMB told The Sunday Times FT.

He said other regulators involved in this process are the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Colombo Stock Exchange, Accounting Standards Committee, Urgent Issues Task Force of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Valuation Department, the Forest Department and the Timber Corporation, who comprise the “Committee on Valuation of Biological Assets (CVBA).

“We were very concerned about the valuation of biological assets and found that because we did not have Sri Lanka Accounting Standards when preparing accounts in this regard some companies have used international accounting standards. Here we also saw that the valuation done according to the international standards have been ‘unreliable’,” Ratnayake stressed. He said SLAASMB has received some comments from the stakeholders and CVBA will review those comments to finalise the guidelines.