Growing non-performing assets in banks is a matter of great concern. Even as the government is projecting non-performing assets in the country at Rs 3.80 lakh crore, in reality total volume of NPAs in the country is not less than Rs 10 lakh crore which is quiet detrimental to country’s economy, said noted tax consultant of the country Amarjeet Chopra while speaking at a Bank audit seminar on Friday at ICAI auditorium organised jointly by the Auditing and Assurance Standard Board and the Indore branch of CIRC of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Delivering his talk on `Bank Audit – advances, Documentation and IRAC Norms, Chopra said growing banking NPAs in the country is not only a question mark on the transparency of banks but would put credibility of tax consultants, auditors who are engaged in bank auditing and identifying NPAs under scanner.
He asked tax consultants, practitioners to maintain utmost precaution while checking bank’s loan accounts and other financial statements as any irregularities would cost them dearly if the government initiates inquiry into banks’ NPAs. He said a complete transparency needs to be maintained as per the RBI guidelines while recognizing and identifying NPAs of banks.
In the second technical session of the seminar, CA Anil K Saxena from Kanpur spoke on the topic- ‘Bank audit a practical outlook’, briefing in detail about general bank auditing processes, while in the third and last technical session, CA Gagan Jhanwar spoke on the topic `Bank Audit – Risk and Reports under CBS environment’, wherein he shed light on risk factors involved in bank’s computerized environment as well as auditing reports which can be accessed online.
Earlier in a separate session organized during the day exclusively for students pursuing CS and CA courses, the students were briefed in detail about bank auditing, bank advances, documentation and IRAC norms by experts. The students were also informed about methodologies and benefits of long term audit reports and filing of tax audit reports. CA Aneek Gupta spoke about how to use excel tools for bank auditing.