The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Union government, the Reserve bank of India and the Central board of Direct Taxes and others on a public interest litigation petition seeking a probe into the affairs of auditing and advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ms. Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi was hearing the petition filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation. Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the petitioner, said: “the apparent violations of various regulations, policies and statues, prima facie , makes a fit case for thorough investigation and any inaction of the relevant authorities to investigate could result in jeopardising and undermining of [the] public interest, rule of the law and the regulatory structure besides probable loss to the public exchequer.”
The petition said, “There are several media reports, which suggest that all the firms operating under the brand name of PwC had received huge funds from abroad in violation of the relevant laws and policy guidelines and they had also not disclosed sources thereof and their books of account also did not show the true state of affairs. However, the relevant authorities have failed to do any investigation into these allegations/reports and take required action against them, posing serious risk and threat to the public interest. The inaction of the relevant authorities also results in undermining of the law and the regulatory structure.”
It said: “the reluctance of the regulators to investigate or take any action against PwC India could, inter alia , be due to the international clout and influence and financial strength of PwC, which is one of the world’s leading auditing and advisory firms. Every year, payments worth hundreds of lakh crores of rupees; be they be by way of subsidies, export incentives, grants, share of government revenue and taxes, sharing of costs and profits in PPP [Public Private Partnership] contracts etc. are done based on the certification of the auditors and it is, therefore, imperative that their certification is absolutely correct and sacrosanct as otherwise it would cause humongous loss to the public exchequer.”
“PwC India is involved in auditing and consulting assignments running into lakhs of crores of rupees.” Hence need for a probe, it said.
