The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has taken the first steps to re-activate its research project on rate-regulated activities, which was suspended in September 2010. The new approach takes a broader view of the topic.

IASB has issued a Request for Information designed to identify a range of rate-regulatory schemes to help determine the scope of the research project. It asks specific questions about the objectives of rate regulation and how those objectives are reflected in the rate-setting mechanisms employed by rate regulators.

ISAB first looked at these issues in July 2009 with the publication of the Exposure Draft Rate-regulated Activities. However, this focused on a particular type of rate-regulatory scheme (a cost-of-service scheme), and respondents expressed divergent views as to how the consequences of rate regulation should be reflected in financial statements, if at all.

As a result, it was decided the scope of the project should be expanded to look at a wider variety of rate regulation in order to identify common characteristics from which accounting guidance might be developed.

The aim of the current exercise is to develop a Discussion Paper analysing the common features of rate regulation. The paper will identify what information about the consequences of rate regulation would be most useful for users of IFRS financial statements and whether the IASB should develop specific guidance for accounting for those consequences.

The Request for Information can be downloaded from the IASB's website HERE. The deadline for responses is 30 May 2013.