The IFRIC staff presented a paper on whether the requirements in IFRS 5 are applicable to non-current assets (or disposal groups) classified as held for sale and to discontinued operations should be extended to non-current assets (disposal groups) that are held for distribution to owners. This issue arose as a consequence of IFRIC discussions on its project on accounting for non-cash distributions. Board members were commenting on an appendix to the board papers that was not available to the public.

One Board member raised the issue of whether the amendment should refer to the 'commitment' to distribute assets to its owners, or to an 'obligation' to distribute assets to its owners. It was noted that the use of the term 'commitment' would be consistent with the current wording of IFRS 5, whereas the term 'obligation' would be consistent with the wording of the draft Interpretation on non-cash asset distributions developed by the IFRIC.

The IFRIC staff said that they had not considered the issue as part of their deliberations on the draft IFRIC and suggested that the amendments to IFRS 5 be removed from the draft IFRIC Interpretation and considered by the Board as part of the 2008 Annual Improvements Process so as not to delay the publication of the Draft IFRIC Interpretation. The staff further suggested including a question in the draft IFRIC on this issue.

The Board agreed.