Indore: While conducting the audit of a trust, society, company etc. Chartered Accountants (CAs) must ensure that the property must not be a ‘Benami’ one. "If the purchased property by these organisations is in the name of someone and its correct disclosure and resolution has not been passed, then the benami law can also apply. We should be cautious while conducting the audit."
This was said by senior Charted Accountant Rajesh Sanghvi from Mumbai while addressing a webinar on Saturday. It was conducted by the Indore Branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The subject of webinar was various laws such as Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Benami Property, Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Banning of Unregulated Deposit Scheme and their impact on CA etc. CA Anand Jain conducted the webinar.
CA. Sanghvi said, "These days, in case of any type of financial fraud etc., the CA is first inquired directly, we can be approached most easily and if the client's records are found with us or any mistake in them is found, we may also face trouble." He discussed various types of frauds held in the past, including questioning of CAs and also mentioned about punishment meted out against them. CA Sanghvi said even if there is a mistake in the audit report, certificate, client's return, etc., the CA can be questioned, It will be seen later whether it was done intentionally or whether it was a mistake, There are examples of various types of mistakes committed, such as signing a client's deed as a witness, questioning a CA who has registered in a GST credit case, giving any misleading information on WhatsApp etc.
CA Indore branch chairman CA Harsh Firoda said, "CAs are the right keepers of public money, many government schemes and various loans etc. are paid on the basis of CA's certificate etc. and in case of any kind of failure, we will also be probed. In such a situation, we should take various types of documents from the clients and write about various exceptions and disclaimers related to the advice we are giving to our clients so that any further action is avoided. Also, before doing the work of any client, we should keep their KYC (Aadhaar card, pen card, photo etc.) in our records."
