Page 14 - Banking Finance May 2023

ROUNDUP

Crude oil pumped out of the ground ment of North Eastern Region G Kishan Accounting audit trail
and from below the seabed is refined Reddy said in Lok Sabha.
mandatory from April 1
and converted into fuels like petrol,
Reddy also said the development of a
diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Starting from 1st April 2023, the Min-
new greenfield airport at Tezu in
istry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has
Arunachal Pradesh, and that of
made it mandatory for companies to
Customer centricity essen- Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Silchar air-
maintain an audit trail for all their
tial for fintechs ports in Assam, Imphal airport in transactions. The new audit trail re-
Manipur, Barapani airport in
Fintechs should keep customers at the quirement introduced by the MCA is
Meghalaya and Agartala airport in
centre of their innovation and follow ahead of its time and is also an essen-
Tripura are ongoing.
high standards of good governance as tial step towards greater transparency
In the northeastern region, 17 airports
part of culture, RBI Deputy Governor and accountability in business opera-
have been made operational. Recently
M K Jain said. tions. Maintaining a detailed record of
Donyi Polo airport (erstwhile Holongi all transactions would help all stake-
He said for the sustainable develop-
Airport) has been inaugurated in holders identify the source of the finan-
ment of the sector, it is essential that
Arunachal Pradesh, he said in reply to cial irregularities. Using these tools
fintechs inculcate the values of ac-
a question. auditors and investigative agencies will
countability, fairness, transparency,
Referring to the railway projects, the ensure a more compliant financial re-
and independence.
minister said new projects worth Rs porting framework.
"Regulation is merely a guardrail to
19,855 crore have been sanctioned for So, what exactly is an audit trail? An
keep the sector on the right path. How-
constructing railway tracks of 864.7 km audit trail is a record of all the trans-
ever, beyond its ability to innovate, the
since 2014-15 till date. actions in a company, including finan-
development of this sector will largely
cial transactions, operational activities,
depend on two critical elements. These
ED charge sheet against
two elements are (i) Customer Centric- and administrative tasks. It includes
Razorpay, fintechs, NBFCs information about who initiated the
ity and (ii) Governance," Jain said.
transaction, when it was initiated, and
The Enforcement Directorate said it
He was addressing an event organised
the nature of the transaction. This in-
has filed a charge sheet against pay-
by Indian Institute of Management
formation is recorded systematically
ment gateway Razorpay, three fintech
(IIM), Ahmedabad and Centre for Ad-
and chronologically, making it easy to
companies controlled by Chinese na-
vanced Financial Research and Learn-
trace the history of any particular
tionals and as many NBFCs and some
ing (CAFRAL) in Ahmedabad.
transaction.
others in a money laundering probe
When developing products and pro-
linked to Chinese loan apps which al-
cesses, fintech should design robust
legedly cheated numerous people. Govt extends deadline for
customer centric products that avoid
The federal probe agency said in a linking PAN with Aadhaar
fintech-induced losses to customers
statement that the special Prevention
such as those from cybersecurity till June 30
of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court
breaches, technical glitches, frauds, The government extended the dead-
based in Bengaluru has taken note of
etc. They should ensure customer suit- line for linking PAN card with Aadhaar
the prosecution complaint.
ability and appropriateness and make
to June 30, 2023 from March 31, 2023.
sure that any inherent biases in mod- The accused entities include fintech
The Central Board of Direct Taxes
els are addressed in a fair manner. companies Mad Elephant Network
(CBDT) said that the date for linking
Technology, Baryonyx Technology and
PAN and Aadhaar has been extended
Cloud Atlas Future Technology which
17 airports made opera- to provide some more time to the tax-
are "controlled" by the Chinese na-
tional in North East tionals and three NBFCs registered payers.
As many as 17 airports have been with RBI named X10 Financial Services Earlier, the last day to link PAN with
made operational in the northeastern Track Fin-ed and Jamnadas Morarjee Aadhaar was March 31, 2023. Accord-
region, Union Minister for Develop- Finance. ing to the income tax department, fail-
BANKING FINANCE | MAY | 2023 | 13