India News | Chinese Cos: ICSI Says Probe into Complaints in Progress

Kolkata, Sep 4 (PTI) The institute of company secretaries on Sunday asserted that investigations into complaints related to alleged violations of the companies' law for setting up of certain Chinese entities in India are in progress.

The apex bodies of chartered accountants and company secretaries, ICAI and ICSI, have together received around 400 complaints on the issue.

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“A few of the 200 complaints received by ICSI from the Centre have reached the prima-facie opinion phase. These are being investigated by directors of the institute,” ICSI President Devendra Deshpande told PTI in an interview.

Many chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants are currently "under the regulatory scanner" for alleged violations of the companies' law with respect to setting up of certain Chinese companies and their subsidiaries in India.

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“The Institute of Company Secretaries of India will follow due process to deal with these complaints. Those who have not exercised due diligence while certifying or authenticating the documents would be convicted for professional misconduct,” he said.

Explaining the process, Deshpande said the institute sends its members a set of queries to reply to it in 21 days which can be extended by another 30 days if sought.

"A complainant also gets a similar timeline to send rejoinders based on the replies. This process is being followed as prescribed in the approved rules, and all the cases are dealt with in the same manner.

"After that, a disciplinary committee will take the final hearing and pass the judgment based on their fact-finding," he said.

Deshpande declined to divulge details of the ongoing investigations into the complaints received from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

He, however, said, "In the last three to four years, including the Covid period, we have witnessed a significant increase in the incorporation of companies, and on an average, over one lakh entities have been incorporated per annum."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)