MOSCOW, November 12 (RAPSI) – MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bill to the State Duma banning foreign accounting firms from auditing Russian companies in which the government owns over 50 percent stake, Interfax reports on Wednesday.

The increasing activity of the Big Four accounting firms - PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte & Touche – and other international audit companies is increasing economic risks for Russia, according to the authors of the bill.

“Foreign audit companies currently audit the majority of strategically important companies in Russia. The Big Four account for over 46% of the aggregate revenue in auditing,” the MPs write in an explanatory note.

They also point to the risk of leakage of information acquired during the audit of defense companies. “There is the risk of a leak even though the audit companies are obliged to keep information about the transactions conducted by the companies they audit confidential,” the note says.

At the same time, the authors of the bill write that the companies that compile financial statements calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will be able to hire any other audit company.