The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred one of India’s top chartered accountant firms Haribhakti and Co. LLP from auditing regulated entities for two years, starting 1 April 2022.
“This action has been taken on account of the failure on the part of the audit firm to comply with a specific direction issued by RBI with respect to its statutory audit of a systemically important non-banking financial company," RBI said in a circular on Tuesday.
The central bank’s move is the first such ban under Section 45 MAA of RBI Act 1934, which deals with powers and duties of auditors.
Haribhakti is the auditor for Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd and Srei Equipment Leasing till September 2022.
The ban will not impact the audit assignments being conducted by Haribhakti and Co. for 2021-22, it said.
Haribhakti is also the official auditor for Axis Bank, RBL Bank and Indusind Bank.
RBI had last week superseded the boards of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) for their failure to repay debts
