To assist governments and other public sector entities in appropriately accounting for the costs of employee benefits, a board within the International Federation of Accountants has issued an exposure draft of a new standard.The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s exposure draft No. 31, “Employee Benefits,” is based on the the International Accounting Standard No. 19, of the same name. The draft addresses the same categories of employee benefits -- short-term employee benefits, post-employment benefits, other long-term employee benefits and termination benefits.
The proposed standard deals with a number of issues of specific relevance to the public sector, including:
- Determining the risk-free discount rate to be applied for discounting obligations arising from post-employment benefits;
- The treatment of post-employment benefits provided through composite social security programs; and,
- Mechanisms for the orderly implementation of the proposed standard in the public sector.
Comments on the draft, which can be viewed at
