Negative working capital means the excess of current liabilities over current assets in an enterprise. Let’s understand what working capital is to get more clarity about negative working capital. Meaning of Working Capital Working Capital refers to the difference between current assets and current lRead more
Negative working capital means the excess of current liabilities over current assets in an enterprise.
Let’s understand what working capital is to get more clarity about negative working capital.
Meaning of Working Capital
Working Capital refers to the difference between current assets and current liabilities of a business.
Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities
It is the capital that an enterprise employs to run its daily operations. It indicates the short term liquidity or the capacity to pay off the current liabilities and pay for the daily operations.
Items under Current Assets and Current Liabilities
It is important to know about the items under current assets and current liabilities to understand the significance of working capital.
Current assets include cash and bank balance, accounts receivables, inventories, short term investments, prepaid expenses etc.
Current liabilities include accounts payable, short term loans, bank overdraft, interest on short term investment, outstanding salaries and wages etc.
Types of working capital
Since the working capital is just the difference between current assets and liabilities, the working capital can be one of the following:
- Positive (Current assets > Current liabilities)
- Zero (Current assets = Current liabilities)
- Negative (Current assets < Current liabilities)
Hence, negative working capital exists when current liabilities are more than current assets.
Implications of having negative working capital
Having negative working capital is not an ideal situation for an enterprise. Having negative working capital indicates that the enterprise is not in a position to pay off its current liabilities and there may be a cash crunch in the business.
An enterprise may have to finance its working capital requirements through long term finance sources if its working capital remains negative for quite a long time.
The ideal situation is to have current assets two times the current liabilities to maintain a good short term liquidity of the business i.e.
Current Assets = 2(Current Liabilities)
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Before answering the question let’s understand what a government grant is. Meaning of government grants Government grants are the assistance provided by the government in cash or kind to any enterprise for any past or future compliance. This assistance can be subsidies, cash incentives, duty drawbacRead more
Before answering the question let’s understand what a government grant is.
Meaning of government grants
Government grants are the assistance provided by the government in cash or kind to any enterprise for any past or future compliance. This assistance can be subsidies, cash incentives, duty drawback, or assets provided at concessional rate or at no cost etc.
These grants when provided have some rules and conditions attached to them. If such conditions are not fulfilled or rules are violated, the grant becomes refundable to the government.
Treatment
AS-12 ‘Government Grant’ provides two approaches for the treatment of government grants in the books of accounts of an enterprise:
For example, X Ltd purchase an asset for ₹ 10,00,000 and the government provided a grant of ₹2,00,000 to X Ltd. The useful life of the asset is 4 years and the residual value is nil.
Now there are two methods to treat this grant as income.
Method – 1: The grant amount will be deducted from the asset’s value. This will result in a decreased amount of depreciation. This is an indirect way to recognize government grants as income.
The journal entries are as follows: (Method-1)
The journal entries for the 3rd and the 4th years will be the same as of 2nd year.
In absence of a government grant, the annual depreciation would have been ₹2,50,000 (₹10,00,000 / 4). Hence, due to the grant, the profit will be 50,000 more for the 4 consecutive accounting years.
Method – 2: The grant amount is credited to a special account called the ‘deferred government grant’ account. Over the useful life of the asset, the grant will be credited to the profit and loss account in equal instalments. This is a direct way to recognize government grants as income.
The journal entries are as follows: (Method-2)
The journal entries for the 3rd and the 4th years will be the same as of 2nd year.
When any grant is given is in nature of promoter’s contribution i.e. as a percentage of total investment to be done by an enterprise, and then such grant received from government will be treated as part of shareholder’s funds.
The grant amount will be transferred to the capital reserve account and it will be treated neither as deferred income nor to be distributed as a dividend.
Example: ABC Ltd has set up its business in a designated backward area which entitles the company to receive from the government a subsidy of 20% of total investment. ABC Ltd fulfilled all the conditions associated with the scheme and received ₹20 crores toward its total investment of ₹100 crores.
This ₹20 crore will be transferred to the capital reserve account.
Special case: If the grant is received in relation to a non-depreciable asset like land, then the entire amount of the grant will be recognized in the profit and loss account in the same year.
Treatment of non-monetary government grant
When a government grant is in the form of non-monetary assets like land or other resources at a concessional rate, then the assets are to be recognised at their acquisition cost.
If the assets are acquired at no cost, then they are to be recorded at their nominal value.
For example, if an enterprise receives land for free as a government grant, then it has to record the land at cost based on prevailing market rates.
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