Accounting regulator ICAI is planning to come out with accounting norms for the software and the BPO industry.
Widening the scope of its enquiry regarding practices adopted by foreign auditing firms to operate in India through surrogate entities, ICAI has asked 11 more domestic chartered accountancy firms to furnish details of operational arrangement with them.
The ICAI president said that the auditors would be interrogated mainly on accounting and auditing aspects and to check whether they followed the right methods of accounting. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has obtained permission from a local court to interrogate the two auditors and examine and record their statements.
The decision comes in the backdrop of the Rs 7,800 crore fraud at Satyam. Independent directors in other firms have also resigned from their board positions in recent months. "It is possible they may have left due to some other reasons, but if any director has left intentionally and was aware of any wrongdoing, then the matter would be reported to the regulator concerned," says ICAI President Uttam Agarwal.
ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal said the new board, to be called the Review Reporting Board, will have powers to examine even unlisted firms. Currently, the Financial Reporting Review Board, which was set up in 2004 to monitor and regulate the functioning of CAs in the country, picks up audit reports of about 50-60 listed companies and non-government organisations to see whether procedures are being followed.
Currently, ICAI cannot take action against any chartered accountant who has indulged in professional misconduct or any other misdeed if he is not a registered member of the institute. The accounting body is also planning to set up a serious fraud detection cell to assist regulators like the Reserve Bank of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India to prevent Satyam-like scams.
Public-sector banks, including Canara Bank and Bank of India, are tapping the infrastructure bond market. Canara Bank on Tuesday raised Rs 10,000 crore at a coupon rate of 7.40 per cent through 10-year infrastructure bonds. This comes after SBI on July 10 raised Rs 10,000 crore also through infrastructure bonds with a 15-year tenor at a coupon rate of 7.36 per cent.
Uttam Prakash Agarwal alleged that Citax and Braich offers were incomplete and did not include firm commitment as to the price, size, timings, confirmation from the banks about availability of the funds.
Zero-coupon bonds don't give out interest but are issued at a deep discount to the face value, making it difficult to ascertain the net present value.
The haircut for major banks stands at 52 per cent, if the dues of Jaypee Infrastructure, Lanco Infrastructure and Era Infrastructure are kept out of the calculation.
Twenty-eight years ago almost to the day, 37 unarmed Muslims were killed in cold blood, an act of wanton violence for which no one has so far been held guilty. Jyoti Punwani and photographer Uttam Ghosh visited the Meerut locality after the trial court recently acquitted the security personnel charged with the killings, and found a town untouched by its grim past.
Meanwhile, key BJP ally skips event to mark first year of Yogi govt.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.