On Monday, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) declared their decision to step down as Paytm’s auditor. Additionally, on the same day, One97 Communications Limited (OCL) informed the exchanges that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Paytm Payments Services, has appointed S.R. Batliboi & Associates as its new auditor.
The PwC’s resignation did not involve any allegations or problems related to the company. Instead, they explained that the decision to resign was a part of the auditor change process within the holding company, OCL.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), they issued an audit report on May 2, 2023, for the financial statements covering the period ending on March 31, 2023. Additionally, the firm provided a limited review report on July 19, 2023, for the unaudited special purpose interim condensed financial statements for the quarter ending on June 30, 2023.
“…Consequently, keeping in mind your understandable practice to align the auditor of PPSL, being a material subsidiary, with the auditor of the holding company in order to bring in synergies and maintain consistency in the audit process of the Group, we hereby tender our resignation as the statutory auditors of PPSL,” stated PwC India in its letter of resignation.
The official twitter account of Paytm has tweeted that “Our wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Payments Services has appointed S.R. Batliboi & Associates as its auditor. PPSL being a material subsidiary, this is aligned with OCL’s appointment of the same firm as its auditor.”
The Paytm subsidiary PPSL was established near the end of 2020. The company developed its own identity when Paytm contracted PPSL to handle its online payment aggregation operations in 2021.
When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked PPSL to reapply for a licence as a payment aggregator in 2022, the situation became contentious. Since then, PPSL has made a lot of adjustments while assiduously pursuing the central bank’s approval for a payment aggregator licence in order to increase the number of merchants it works with.
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