Six years in, the audit regulator has settled into a pattern—stiff penalties for small firms and little more than strong words for their larger peers—that questions its very existence.
In April and May this year, India’s audit regulator slapped penalties on three firms in connection with audits of three of Anil Ambani’s companies—Reliance Capital Ltd and two of its subsidiaries, Reliance Home Finance Ltd and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd—for the 2018-19 fiscal year. The firms penalized were Pathak H.D. and Associates, Shridhar and Associates and Dhiraj and Dheeraj.
Pathak H.D. was fined Rs 3 crore and two of its chartered accountants were told to pay Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh, besides being debarred for 10 and 5 years. Shridhar and Associates was hit with a Rs …
Abir investigates corruption and white-collar crime, with a focus on finance, infrastructure, energy and the environment. He started his career as a reporter at the Economic and Political Weekly. Prior to The Morning Context, he wrote freelance for publications in India and abroad.
Editor, Investigations
abir@mailtmc.com
Delhi