NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) adjudicating authority has slapped a Rs 230.40 crore penalty for the violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) on the global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and six others, officials said on Monday, reports IANS.
The ED’s Special Director (Eastern Region), which is the adjudicating authority, slapped the fine. It held the company guilty of violation of section 10(6), 6(2), 6(3) and 9(b) of the FEMA, 1999 for receiving investments in the guise of purported grants in non-permitted sector without the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval.
The ED last week had slapped a show-cause penalty notice on the firm and others under the FEMA.
It’s alleged the firm was rendering financial services, including financial forensics, financial risk consultancy, management consultancy, deals and transactions and taxation matters, in which foreign investments were not permitted without the RBI approval.
As per the allegation, the PwC along with others, including PwC chairman Shyamal Mukherjee, Director Satyavati Behera, ex-chairmen Deepak Kapoor and Ramesh Ranjan, former executive director Ambrish Dasgupta and former employee of the company Shivam Dubey, received investments from PwC Services BV by falsely showing them as grants, in an effort to avoid the FEMA provisions.
They can appeal the order within 45 days from its issue. The ED had launched the probe against PwC after the Supreme Court order in a public interest litigation filed by an NGO.
