Expense Heads explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.
The list begins with the cost of money and the cost of credit losses. Only at the sixth line does it start to resemble a trading company's income statement.
The eleven expense heads
The aggregate of the following expenses is to be disclosed on the face of the Statement of Profit and Loss:
- Finance Costs
- Fees and commission expense
- Net loss on fair value changes
- Net loss on de-recognition of financial instruments under amortised cost category
- Impairment of financial instruments
- Cost of materials consumed
- Purchases of Stock-in-Trade
- Changes in inventories of finished goods, stock-in-trade and work-in-progress
- Employee benefits expense
- Depreciation, amortization and impairment
- Other expenses (to be specified)
Items 1 to 5 are all financial. They mirror, almost line for line, the first five revenue heads — interest income against finance costs, fees and commission income against fees and commission expense, net gain against net loss on fair value changes, and net gain against net loss on de-recognition of financial instruments under amortised cost category.
That symmetry is the point. An NBFC's operating result is the spread between what it earns on assets and what it pays on liabilities, less the credit losses it suffers — and the format is arranged so a reader can compute exactly that by pairing the corresponding lines.
Impairment of financial instruments has no revenue counterpart, and sits fifth for that reason. It is the cost of the risk the business exists to take.
Items 6 to 8 — materials consumed, purchases of stock-in-trade, changes in inventories — are the manufacturing and trading lines, present because some NBFCs do sell goods, but placed after everything financial.
Fees and commission among the expense heads
Fees and commission expenses include all expenses on services such as commission on documents sent on collection, commission / exchange on remittances and transfers, commission on letters of credit and guarantees, commission on other permitted agency business including consultancy and other services, brokerage, etc.
And the test that keeps it aligned with the income side: if any of these elements are required to be included for the purpose of computing effective interest rate under Indian Accounting Standards, it should not be included under this head.
Costs integral to the effective interest rate are absorbed into the yield on the related instrument, exactly as integral fee income is.
Net gain or loss on fair value changes
As per Note 4 of the General Instructions, the fair value gains or losses (net) on financial assets which are measured at FVTPL should be presented under "Revenue from Operations" with these line items:
| Section | Line items |
|---|---|
| (A) Net Gain / (Loss) on financial instruments at fair value through profit or loss | (i) On trading portfolio — Investments; Derivatives; Others (ii) On financial instruments designated at fair value through profit or loss |
| (B) Others (to be specified) | Total Net gain / (loss) on fair value changes (C) |
| Fair value changes | Realised; Unrealised — Total (D), which must tally with (C) |
Two features are worth noting. The fair value changes in this schedule are other than those arising on account of accrued interest income / expense — so interest is not double-counted between this line and interest income. And the amount of net loss under this section should be disclosed in Expenses — Net loss on fair value changes, using the same structure.
What "others" covers within these expense heads
"Others" may include instruments other than those held for trading or designated at fair value through profit or loss, such as debt instruments which are classified as fair value through profit or loss, and on de-recognition of debt instruments classified as fair value through other comprehensive income.
The second limb is the recycling entry — a cumulative gain or loss sitting in OCI on an FVOCI debt instrument is reclassified to profit or loss when the instrument is derecognised, and it lands here.
Common mistakes
- Including EIR-integral costs within fees and commission expense.
- Presenting a net fair value loss within revenue as a negative figure.
- Leaving accrued interest inside the fair value changes line.
- Failing to reconcile the realised and unrealised analysis to the total.