NFRA eyes larger role, wants to be regulator for entire gamut of financial reporting

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Audit regulator National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) wants to be positioned as a regulator for the entire gamut of financial reporting, covering all processes and participants in the financial reporting chain.

Towards this end, NFRA has “requested” its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to come up with draft proposals in this regard.

This has been revealed as part of one of the conclusions made by NFRA to the 19 specific questions arising from the recommendations of the TAC report of March 2021, which formed the basis of a consultation paper issued by the audit regulator in June.

TAC recommendation

This aspiration to be a regulator for the entire gamut of financial reporting formed part of conclusion on a TAC recommendation to introduce a policy on settlement of disciplinary matters against auditors.

It maybe recalled that the TAC had recommended that the NFRA examine the desirability and feasibility of a policy on settlement of disciplinary matters.

Responding to this suggestion, NFRA has now concluded that the introduction of a settlement mechanism is only one aspect of a whole raft of changes that need to be brought about in the law, to more properly define NFRA’s remit, and to provide it with the requisite functional, financial and administrative autonomy for being an effective regulator.

“NFRA needs to be positioned as a regulator for the entire gamut of financial reporting, covering all processes and participants in the financial reporting chain,” the NFRA conclusion said.

NFRA on Monday made public its conclusions on the questions posed in its consultation paper on TAC report on Enhancing Engagement with Stakeholders. NFRA had requested for comments on a total of 19 specific questions arising from the recommendations of the TAC report.

The comment period for this consultation paper ended on June 30 this year. NFRA has received 17 comment letters from stakeholders such as important industry bodies, large accounting firms and research /academia.

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Yono by SBI Joins Hands with Shivrai Technologies, to Launch Small Farm Accounting App, Farmizo Khata, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Business Wire India

Farmizo Khata assisting Farmers of the Future

Shivrai Technologies, Indian AgTech company, recently announced the launch of their B2C Farm accounting mobile application, Farmizo Khata. Joining hands with Yono by SBI, they aim to help farmers across the country to manage their accounts efficiently, thus cutting down on losses. Shivrai also owns their own B2B brand, FarmERP.

Shivrai Technologies recently coined their 25-year mark of incorporation. Known for their formidable solutions in the space of AgriTech, they are all set to dip their foot into the B2C pool. Through this new venture with Yono by SBI, they aim to make their application increasingly accessible.

Farmers incur massive losses due to the lack of knowledge, disorganised book-keeping skills, and inability to manage their expenses in the most profitable manner. To aid this process, Shivrai Technologies partnered with leading digital banking platform, Yono SBI to help smallholder, marginal, and large-holder farmers by way of a free application. This will allow them to focus on their costs incurred, as well as the bookkeeping of total profits that are in line.

This free-of-cost application will not only efficiently manage their accounts but will also give them a platform to analyse and calculate their profits, losses, and expenses, thus enabling them to make wiser purchase, harvest, and production decisions. It is curated in the simplest possible way for smallholder farmers to benefit from it.

Aapki Kheti Ka Hisaab Kitaab- Available on Google Playstore and Appstore, as well as in the form of a digital portal, this accounting software has a simple User Interface and Experience for its audience. Shivrai is offering this software to farmers all across the nation at no cost.

How Does It Work?

Users can create their profile by entering basic information. Post that, the software will guide them to register their plot by entering Plot details and Crop Information. This software will also assist the farmers in Geo-Tagging their crops. In the next step, the farmers would be required to add their expenses incurred on each plot, along with their income details and profit and loss amounts on the software’s dashboard. After doing this, the software would automatically generate the Exact Cost of Production of each crop as per kg and acre. This would include the Auditor cost, the marketing and housekeeping cost, etc. In the end, the software would create a ‘Khata’ with a complete view of all the transactions in a simple ledger.

Sanjay Borkar, CEO and Co-Founder of Shivrai Technologies commented on the launch of the software, “We are very excited to announce the launch of this application. Inconsistent cost sheets, poor calculations of expenses and income, faulty accounts are a pain for farmers, resulting in massive financial setbacks. Farmizo Khata has entered the market with the sole purpose of reducing these financial setbacks for smallholder farmers, in turn increasing their yearly turnovers.,

Under the umbrella of Farmizo, Shivrai also plans on launching applications catering to various sub-verticals within the agricultural industry. In the year 2021, the brand is focusing on the upliftment of smallholder farmers by way of launching various applications personalised for their use. In the coming months, Shivrai is gearing itself to launch its new D2C application. The app that is in the final stages of testing, would be directly selling fresh fruits and vegetables to end-consumers, bypassing all and any third-party retailers or middlemen. In the next two years, the brand has a target to onboard 2 million agricultural stakeholders on their platforms.

Santosh Shinde, COO, and Co-Founder of Shivrai Technologies stated, “We believe Farmizo Khata will pave a way for smallholder farmers giving them the right support they need to make wise financial decisions. This being the 25th year of the inception of our parent company, Shivrai Technologies, we have some exciting projects in the pipeline. Farmizo is one such project that we can’t wait to share with the market.,

Shivrai Technologies is best known for their B2B Farm Business Management Platform, FarmERP. The platform has its presence in over 25 countries today, catering to stakeholders across the entire agricultural value chain. Their comprehensive platform acts as a solution for various agribusinesses and aims to vastly grow in the future with their personalised solutions.



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FIDC asks RBI to put off norms on auditor appointment by NBFCs to next fiscal

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Finance Industry Development Council has requested the Reserve Bank of India to push back the guidelines for appointment of statutory auditors of banks and non-banking finance companies to April 1, 2022 or fiscal year 2022-23.

To give NBFCs time to comply with the new norms, and “For smooth implementation and minimum disruption, the applicability of the circular can be with effect from April 1, 2022,” FIDC said in a representation to the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.

FIDC is a representative body of assets and loan financing NBFCs.

“Most of the NBFCs have already finalised the auditors for 2021-22 and the flexibility of changing auditors in the second half of 2021-22 doesn’t really help as shareholder approval would be required and the notice of the AGM would have already been finalised,” FIDC said.

Further, identifying a new auditor will take some time and it would be difficult for any new auditor to audit the accounts in a six month period, it said.

Cooling period

FIDC has also suggested that the cooling period should be reduced to five years instead of six as this will then better align with the Companies Act.

The RBI had on April 27 issued guidelines for appointment of statutory central auditors and statutory auditors for commercial banks, urban cooperative banks and NBFCs for the financial year 2021-22 and onwards.

UCBs and NBFCs will have the flexibility to adopt these guidelines from the second half of the year. While NBFCs do not have to take prior approval of the RBI for appointment of these auditors, all entities need to inform the RBI about the appointment for each year. Non-deposit taking NBFCs with asset size below ₹1,000 crore can continue with extant procedure.

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PSB mergers increase auditor workload, seek more hands, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Auditors at several state-owned banks have asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the number of agencies empanelled to conduct audits citing unprecedented increase in workload and number of certificates to be issued by statutory central and branch auditors in light of the merger of several state-run banks last year, according to an ET report.

Auditors have argued that increasing the manpower for inspecting bank books is important to maintain the quality of the exercise.
“The huge work allocated to statutory central auditors and statutory branch auditors in respect of various state-run banks requires huge manpower deployment of partners and paid chartered accountants. This itself justifies appointing a minimum of six such auditors,” said Prakash Sharma, vice chairman, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), according to the report.

Quality aspect

Sharma said the rise in services of banks and their branch count, especially for merged banks, requires enhancing the number of auditors to ensure good quality inspections.

As per the present rules, the ICAI prepares a list of eligible auditors and audit firms, subject to the regulator’s scrutiny. RBI forwards the final list of all eligible auditors to PSBs for selection.

The merger

Under the government’s mega consolidation plan, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India merged into Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank.

Officers have also requested the RBI to consider specifying the minimum number of auditors to be appointed rather than leaving the choice to banks.

They have also sought a revision of audit fees given the rise in the scope of the audit, enhanced compliance requirements, security risks, new legislations, and the ever-changing policy landscape.

Intensive and time-consuming

Abhinav Sharma, partner, AVG & Associates, said that increasing regulatory oversight has already made branch-level audits intensive and time-consuming.

“Hence, post-merger of PSBs, audit completion of a higher number of branches will pose a challenge. For instance, PNB is working with five statutory auditors despite having the approval of six prior to the merger,” Sharma said.
Auditors have also sought proportionate increase in number of auditors.



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