The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued the Standard on Sustainability Assurance (SSA) 5000, titled General Requirements and Framework for Sustainability Assurance Engagements. The principle-based standard lays down how independent practitioners will verify company disclosures on climate, labour practices, biodiversity and other sustainability matters. The ICAI has made SSA 5000 applicable for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2027, aligning India with the global ISSA 5000 framework.
What Is Sustainability Assurance?
Sustainability assurance is independent checking of a company’s environmental, social and governance claims by a trained practitioner. The practitioner tests the data, systems and evidence behind disclosures on emissions, water, jobs and diversity. The aim is to confirm the information is free from major errors and fit for decisions.
Sustainability means meeting present needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In business, it covers how a company affects nature, treats workers and communities, and governs itself. Sustainability assurance is the independent check of these claims. ESG assurance has the same meaning, since ESG stands for environmental, social and governance factors.
A financial audit checks money figures in balance sheets and profit statements. Sustainability assurance checks non-financial facts such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water withdrawal, waste recycled, worker safety and gender pay. These facts need field data, meters, bills, lab reports and estimates, so the checking method is different from a money audit.
The ICAI framework allows two levels of checking. Reasonable assurance gives a high level of confidence and ends with a positive opinion, such as stating that the information is fairly presented. Limited assurance gives a lower level of confidence and ends with a negative form, such as stating that nothing has come to notice that shows major error. The work for limited assurance is narrower in range and depth, but it must still be strong enough to be useful to readers.
What Is ICAI?
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the national body that regulates the chartered accountancy profession in India. It was set up as a statutory body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. The ICAI conducts examinations, sets auditing standards and guides members in audit and assurance work.
The ICAI was established on 1 July 1949 and functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Its headquarters is at ICAI Bhawan in New Delhi. The ICAI is among the largest professional accounting bodies in the world, with more than four lakh members. Its council includes elected members and nominees of the central government.
The ICAI issues Standards on Auditing (SAs), Standards on Quality Management and a Code of Ethics for its members. For sustainability work, the ICAI set up the Sustainability Reporting Standards Board (SRSB). The SRSB prepared the exposure draft of SSA 5000 in May 2026, invited public comments till 19 June 2026, and then finalised the standard. The ICAI President is CA Prasanna Kumar D (as of September 2026) and the Vice President is CA Mangesh Kinare (as of September 2026).
What Is Sustainability Reporting and BRSR Reporting in India?
Sustainability reporting is a company’s public disclosure of its environmental, social and governance impacts, risks and actions. It covers metrics, targets and policies on emissions, energy, water, waste, worker welfare, human rights and governance. The purpose is to give investors, regulators and citizens comparable facts beyond financial profit.
In India, this disclosure uses the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) format. BRSR stands for Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which regulates the securities market and is headquartered in Mumbai, introduced BRSR through a circular in May 2021. The top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation must file BRSR as part of their annual report from financial year 2022-23 under the SEBI listing rules.
The BRSR format has three parts. General disclosures describe the company, its products, employees and operations. Management and process disclosures describe policies linked to the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC). Principle-wise performance disclosures report data against the nine NGRBC principles, split into essential indicators that all filers must report and leadership indicators that responsible firms report on a voluntary basis.
BRSR Core and SEBI Mandate for Assurance
BRSR Core is a shorter subset of BRSR that SEBI marked for independent checking. It contains key performance indicators under nine ESG attributes, such as emissions, water, waste, safety, diversity and wages. SEBI added India specific indicators such as job creation in small towns, openness of business and gross wages paid to women. It also asks for intensity ratios based on revenue adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to allow fair global comparison.
SEBI introduced BRSR Core in July 2023 with a step by step timetable linked to market size. The timetable reached the top 500 companies in 2025-26 and reaches the top 1,000 companies in 2026-27, which is the financial year that started on 1 April 2026. The SEBI circular of 28 March 2025 eased the form of checking. Companies must now obtain either assurance under recognised assurance standards or assessment by a third party under standards framed by the Industry Standards Forum in consultation with SEBI.
| Financial Year | Companies Covered for BRSR Core Check |
|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Top 150 listed companies by market capitalisation |
| 2024-25 | Top 250 listed companies by market capitalisation |
| 2025-26 | Top 500 listed companies by market capitalisation |
| 2026-27 | Top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation |
The board of each company must ensure that the provider has the needed skill and has no conflict of interest. The provider and its associates must not sell products or give consulting or other non-assurance services to the company or its group. Disclosures for the value chain of large suppliers and distributors remain voluntary for the top 250 companies from 2025-26, with voluntary checking from 2026-27. It is in this BRSR assurance system that SSA 5000 will now give chartered accountants a common method.
What Does SSA 5000 Contain?
The ICAI describes SSA 5000 as a principle-based and stand-alone standard. It applies to assurance of all types of sustainability information, however it is presented, and to the full report or only a selected part of it. The information can be prepared under any suitable framework, such as BRSR, if the practitioner first finds the reporting criteria suitable and the reporting boundary fair.
The standard covers the full life of an engagement. The practitioner must check preconditions, agree clear terms, plan the work, study internal controls, assess the risk of major error, gather enough proof, and give a written conclusion. The practitioner must also test the company process for deciding what matters to report, which includes how the company applies materiality and how it sets the reporting boundary for its own units and its value chain.
SSA 5000 requires strong controls on quality and honesty. The work must follow the ICAI Code of Ethics and the ICAI system for quality management at both the firm level and the engagement level. The practitioner must stay alert to fraud, breach of law, and misleading presentation, question management claims, and record the work. The standard applies to listed entities under SEBI rules and to any other entity that seeks independent assurance, but assurance of future predictions is kept outside its scope.
How SSA 5000 Aligns With ISSA 5000
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is the global body that sets international audit and assurance standards. The IAASB issued the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000 in November 2024. ISSA 5000 is effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026. It is a single, profession neutral standard that both accountants and other assurance providers can use across any topic and any reporting framework.
The ICAI states that SSA 5000 draws its base from ISSA 5000, with specific carve-outs to fit Indian law and practice. The details of deleted or changed paragraphs are listed in an appendix to the Indian standard. With this step, India joins the early group of jurisdictions that have a national equivalent of ISSA 5000.
| Feature | ISSA 5000 (Global) | SSA 5000 (India) |
|---|---|---|
| Issuing body | IAASB | ICAI through SRSB |
| Nature | Principle-based, stand-alone | Principle-based, stand-alone |
| Scope | All sustainability topics and frameworks | All sustainability topics and frameworks, with focus on BRSR |
| Assurance levels | Reasonable and limited assurance | Reasonable and limited assurance |
| Effective date | Periods starting on or after 15 December 2026 | Financial years starting on or after 1 April 2027 |
Once SSA 5000 takes effect, two older Indian standards will stand withdrawn. SSAE 3000 was the general standard for assurance other than audits of past financial data, and SAE 3410 dealt only with assurance of greenhouse gas statements. SSA 5000 replaces this split approach with one common method for climate, labour, biodiversity and other non-financial information.
Why SSA 5000 Matters: Greenwashing and Investor Trust
Greenwashing means making a company look more environment friendly or socially responsible than the facts support. The risk is high in sustainability reports because companies write their own stories and choose which good news to highlight. Investors, banks and regulators use these reports to give loans, fix prices and judge risk, so wrong or selective facts can misguide money and policy.
SSA 5000 shifts the focus from broad claims to proof-based reporting. The practitioner cannot simply accept management explanations. The practitioner must test measurement methods, check data quality for emissions, water, waste and biodiversity, and carry out procedures to confirm the numbers. The practitioner must also ask whether the report is balanced, whether major units or bad news have been left out, and whether the value chain boundary has been drawn without sound reason.
For India, the timing is important. BRSR Core checking now covers hundreds of large companies, and the top 1,000 list comes under the net in 2026-27. A single Indian standard will bring more uniform reports, easier comparison across firms, and stronger public trust in corporate disclosures. It will also help Indian reports speak the same assurance language that global investors already expect under ISSA 5000.
Key Takeaways
- The ICAI issued SSA 5000 for sustainability assurance engagements, applicable for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2027.
- SSA 5000 is aligned with the IAASB ISSA 5000, which was issued in November 2024 and is effective from 15 December 2026.
- BRSR stands for Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting and is mandatory for the top 1,000 listed companies from 2022-23.
- BRSR Core is the SEBI subset of indicators under nine ESG attributes that must be checked on a glide path reaching the top 1,000 companies in 2026-27.
- The ICAI, set up under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 and headquartered in New Delhi, will withdraw SSAE 3000 and SAE 3410 once SSA 5000 takes effect.
