Colombia. All companies in Colombia must embrace International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, a new way of keeping their accounts. The telecommunications sector and pay-TV service providers are no exception.
By decree, these rules must be implemented by the first of January 2016 as a deadline; So, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I invite you to inquire with your accountant and see your current status, get good advice, do your research, but do it soon, IFRS is more than a requirement and applies regardless of whether or not your organization is for profit.
Manuel Guillermo Escobar, founding partner of the Colombian firm North Management, specialized in information consulting, gave the economic newspaper Portafolio an interview published in www.portafolio.co on August 24 of this year, where he declared: "Adopting global accounting standards is expensive, but not doing so is worse."
In his remarks, it should be noted that there are already problems in Colombia due to the non-application of these rules because it treats them "timidly" and this leads to international financing organizations denying the necessary credits for the technological progress required by the country. Failure to comply with these rules limits opportunities to conduct business abroad, for example with content or material providers for their networks.
Most businessmen complain about the FTA and unload in it the little progress in their operation, arguing that they give more opportunities to the foreign company to take the capital, that they do not pay taxes in Colombia in the same way, in short, if we go deeper, not to implement these rules, IFRS, is to waste the spaces generated by these international trade agreements and the unions have a lot to do with this.
They have great responsibility and their participation has been very small. As Manuel Guillermo Escobar explains, "they have not understood the change, because it has a high complexity. They say, let's put it aside. They don't know that's creating (structural) value. The first message to send is about the need to understand these standards and apply them in order to see the benefit."
The Colombian State is making great efforts to ensure that the established times are met and has created support programs for the implementation of these norms, to be attentive to these calls and to accept these benefits in a timely manner.
Text written for TVyVideo+Radio by engineer Luis Pinto, ICT consultant.
