NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Motors Tuesday joined the growing list of companies changing their accounting practices to report stock options as compensation expenses.

The world's biggest automaker, which will begin expensing options in January 2003, also said CEO Rick Wagoner and CFO John Devine planned to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission's requirement that it certify the accuracy of its financial statements by August 14.

GM said stock options will add to its annual expenses by about $85 million, or 15 cents per share. It said the cost of its annual option grants would grow to about $130 million, or 24 cents a share, in 2005.

Detroit-based GM (GM: up $1.08 to $42.84, Research, Estimates), whose shares rose in midday trading, said about 53,000 of its employees hold options.

"We continue to believe stock options are an appropriate and valuable part of compensation that encourages employees to focus on shareholder return," Devine said in a statement.

Other U.S. companies who have decided to account for options as a compensation expense -- a standard endorsed by consumer groups, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and others but long resisted by business groups -- include Procter & Gamble (PG: up $0.28 to $87.72, Research, Estimates) and General Electric (GE: up $1.35 to $29.65, Research, Estimates).

GM also supported recent reform initiatives, including the Sarbanes/Oxley Act signed into law by President Bush.

The company said it was satisfied with its existing internal controls, including the presence of 10 independent directors on its 12-member board, but said it had "augmented" those controls in reviewing the SEC filings Wagoner and Devine will endorse next week.