MCA vide its notifications dated 24.03.2021 and 01.04.2021, has notified the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Amendment Rules, 2021 and Companies (Audit and Auditors) Second Amendment Rules, 2021 respectively.
Effective from the 1st day of April, 2021.
The analysis of these amendment notifications are as follows:
Amendment to Rule 11 - Other Matters to be Included in Auditors Report
Post amendment the Auditor’s Report shall include their views and comments on the following Six matters, namely:-
(a) Whether the Company has disclosed the impact, if any, of pending litigations on its financial position in its financial statement;
(b) Whether the Company has made provision, as required under any law or accounting standards, for material foreseeable losses, if any, on long term contracts including derivative contracts;
(c) Whether there has been any delay in transferring amounts, required to be transferred, to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) by the Company.
(d) Whether the Company had provided requisite disclosures in its financial statements as to holdings as well as dealings in Specified Bank Notes during the period from 8th November, 2016 to 30th December, 2016 and if so, whether these are in accordance with the books of accounts maintained by the company [Omitted w.e.f. 1st April 2021]
(e) (i) Whether the management has represented that, to the best of it’s knowledge and belief, other than as disclosed in the notes to the accounts, no funds have been advanced or loaned or invested (either from borrowed funds or share premium or any other sources or kind of funds) by the company to or in any other person(s) or entity(ies), including foreign entities (“Intermediaries”), with the understanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, that the Intermediary shall, whether, directly or indirectly lend or invest in other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of the Company (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf of the Ultimate Beneficiaries;
(ii) Whether the management has represented, that, to the best of it’s knowledge and belief, other than as disclosed in the notes to the accounts, no funds have been received by the Company from any person(s) or entity(ies), including foreign entities (“Funding Parties”), with the understanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, that the Company shall, whether, directly or indirectly, lend or invest in other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of the Funding Party (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf of the Ultimate Beneficiaries; and
(iii) Based on such audit procedures that the auditor has considered reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances, nothing has come to their notice that has caused them to believe that the representations under sub-clause (i) and (ii) contain any material mis-statement.
(f) Whether the dividend declared or paid during the year by the Company is in compliance with section 123 of the Companies Act, 2013.
(g) Whether the Company, in respect of financial years commencing on or after the 1st April, 2022 has used such accounting software for maintaining its books of account which has a feature of recording audit trail (edit log) facility and the same has been operated throughout the year for all transactions recorded in the software and the audit trail feature has not been tampered with and the audit trail has been preserved by the Company as per the statutory requirements for record retention.
Accordingly
- After omission of clause (d) Auditors are not required to report on the holdings as well as dealings of the Company in Specified Bank Notes in the year 2016, however now Auditors are required to report on the matters as specified under clause e & f w.e.f. 1st April 2021.
- As per clause g, the Auditors are also required to report on the following points for financial years commencing on or after the 1st April, 2022:
- Whether the Company has used accounting software which has a feature of recording audit trail facility;
- The same has been operated throughout the year; and
- The audit trail feature has not been tampered with and the audit trail has been preserved by the Company.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are strictly of the author. The contents of this article are solely for informational purpose. It does not constitute professional advice. The author does not accepts any liabilities for any loss or damage of any kind arising out of any information in this article nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
The Author is a qualified Company Secretary and can be reached at csgauravwalekar@gmail.com for any queries, issues & recommendations relating to article.
CAclubindia
