Contabilidad regulatoria versus contabilidad financiera: estudio de caso de las diferencias del tratamiento contable en empresas brasileñas del sector eléctrico

This article analyzes the perception by accountants working in Brazilian companies of the electric industry regarding the lack of agreement between the financial accounting and the regulatory accounting. The disagreement resulted from the issuance of the information safety standards and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which leads the companies to adhere to the international standards. To that end, a descriptive qualitative research is conducted in order to gather the opinions by professionals working in electric energy licensed companies in Brazil about the application of the technical guidelines OCPC 8 to the electric licensing contracts. According to the perception by the interviewed acountants, the electric energy companies had to face some problems requiring an adaptation of the computer systems. All these situations caused additional costs for controlling and preparing their financial statements. Such circumstances derived from the divergent procedures used in the financial accounting and in the regulatory accounting. On the other hand, a growing concern can be observed among these professionals about how to improve the connections between both accounting regulations: there should be a link grounded on the quality of the financial data disclosed and made available to the users, and on the benefit derived from applying such technical criteria.