The newly set up National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) is empowered to impose penalties on erring audit firms, said PP Chaudhary, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs and Law and Justice.
The power to impose penalties on audit firms has been conferred on NFRA under the Companies Act 2013, Chaudhury said in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question on Tuesday.
It may be recalled that the Union Cabinet had on March 1 approved the setting up of NFRA as an independent regulator for the auditing profession.
It was also specified that the jurisdiction of NFRA for investigation of CAs and their firms would extend to all listed companies and large unlisted companies, the thresholds for which shall be prescribed in the rules.
CSR norms
Meanwhile, the government has given its nod to initiate penal action on 199 companies for non-compliance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) norms.
This was stated by Chaudhary in a written reply to another Rajya Sabha question on Tuesday. He also said that the government has no proposal to review the state of implementation of CSR provisions in the existing Companies Act.