What do you mean by accounting standards? Discuss its objectives.

Accounting Standards (ASs) are written policy documents issued by expert accounting bodies or by government or any other regulatory body. Accounting Standards cover the aspects of recognition, measurements, treatment, presentation, and disclosure of accounting transactions in the financial statements. Thus, accounting standards are guidelines for financial accounting, as to how firms prepare and present their business income and expense, assets, and liabilities. According to Section 2(2) of the Companies Act 2013 , "accounting standards" means the standards of accounting or any addendum thereto for companies or class of companies referred to in Section 133. The Central Government may prescribe the standards of accounting or any addendum thereto, as recommended by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, constituted under Section 3 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, in consultation with and after examination of the recommendations made by the National Financial Reporting Authority. Objectives of Accounting Standards: To harmonise different accounting policies and used in a country. To reduce the accounting alternatives in the preparation of financial statements. To ensure comparability of financial statements of different enterprises. To call for disclosures beyond that required by the law.