We have audited the accompanying standalone financial statements of FONE4 COMMUNICATIONS(INDIA) LIMITED (“the Company”) which comprises the Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2024, theStatement of Profit and Loss and Statement of Cash Flows for the year then ended, and notes to thefinancial statements, including a summary of material accounting policies and other explanatoryinformation (hereinafter referred to as “the standalone financial statements”).
In our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us,except for the possible effects of the matter described in the Basis for Qualified Opinionsection of our report, the aforesaid standalone financial statements give the information required bythe Companies Act, 2013 (“the Act”) in the manner so required and give a true and fair view inconformity with the accounting standards specified under section 133 of the Act, read with Rule 7 ofthe Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 (as amended) and other accounting principles generallyaccepted in India, of the state of affairs of the Company as at 31 March 2024 and loss and its cashflows for the year ended on that date.
Attention is invited to the following matters in the Notes to the Standalone Financial Statements:
i. the confirmations regarding the closing balances of trade receivables, trade payablesand loans & advances were not made available to us by the management in certaincases. Therefore, we are unable to comment on whether those balances, as shown infinancial results, are correct or not.
ii. the Company has registered under the Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952 andEmployee’s State Insurance Act, 1948, however, the same has not been deducted anddeposited on the eligible employees. The impact of the same is not ascertainable.
iii. the Company has not complied with the provision of Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) byfailing to file the Income Tax Return (“ITR”) under section 139 of the IT Act and TaxAudit Report (“TAR”) under section 44AB of the IT Act for the assessment year 2022-23and 2023-24. Accordingly, the company shall be liable to pay the applicable penaltiesfor non-filing of ITR and TAR as per provisions of the IT Act.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the Standards on Auditing (SAs) specified under section143(10) of the Companies Act, 2013. Our responsibilities under those Standards are furtherdescribed in the Auditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Standalone Financial Statementssection of our report. We are independent of the Company in accordance with the Code of Ethicsissued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India together with the ethical requirements thatare relevant to our audit of the standalone financial statements under the provisions of theCompanies Act, 2013 and the Rules thereunder, and we have fulfilled our other ethicalresponsibilities in accordance with these requirements and the Code of Ethics. We believe that theaudit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our qualifiedopinion on the Standalone Financial Statements.
The Company's Management and Board of Directors are responsible for the other information. Theother information comprises the information included in the Director's report, but does not include thestandalone financial statements and our auditor's report thereon.
Our opinion on the standalone financial statements does not cover the other information and we donot express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the standalone financial statements, our responsibility is to read theother information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistentwith the standalone financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appearsto be materially misstated.
The Director's report is not made available to us at the date of this auditor's report. We have nothingto report in this regard.
The Company's Management and Board of Directors are responsible for the matters stated in section134(5) of the Act with respect to the preparation of these standalone financial statements that give atrue and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Company inaccordance with the accounting standards specified under section 133 of the Act, read with Rule 7 ofthe Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 (as amended) and other accounting principles generallyaccepted in India. This responsibility also includes maintenance of adequate accounting records inaccordance with the provisions of the Act for safeguarding of the assets of the Company and forpreventing and detecting frauds and other irregularities; selection and application of appropriate ofaccounting policies; making judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and design,implementation and maintenance of adequate internal financial controls that were operatingeffectively for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the accounting records, relevant to thepreparation and presentation of the standalone financial statement that give a true and fair view andare free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the standalone financial statements, the management and Board of Directors areresponsible for assessing the Company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, asapplicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unlessmanagement either intends to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or has no realisticalternative but to do so.
The Board of Directors is also responsible for overseeing the company's financial reporting process.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Standalone financialstatements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and toissue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level ofassurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with SAs will always detect amaterial misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are consideredmaterial if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence theeconomic decisions of users taken on the basis of these standalone financial statements.
As part of an audit in accordance with SAs, we exercise professional judgment and maintainprofessional skepticism throughout the audit. We also:
• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the standalone financial statements,whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, andobtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The riskof not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting fromerror, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or theoverride of internal control.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design auditprocedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. Under section 143(3)(i) of the CompaniesAct, 2013, we are also responsible for expressing our opinion on whether the company hasadequate internal financial controls with reference to Standalone Financial Statements in placeand the operating effectiveness of such controls.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accountingestimates and related disclosures made by the Management and Board of Directors.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of the Management and Board of Directors use of the goingconcern basis of accounting in preparation of standalone financial statements and, based on theaudit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions thatmay cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. If weconclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor'sreport to the related disclosures in the standalone financial statements or, if such disclosures areinadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained upto the date of our auditor's report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Companyto cease to continue as a going concern.
• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the standalone financial statements,including the disclosures, and whether the standalone financial statements represent theunderlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.
We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned
scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in
internal control that we identify during our audit.
Without qualifying our opinion, we draw attention on the following matters;
(a) the Company has not maintained the adequate records for inventory lying as stock in trade.However, a physical verification of stock was conducted by M/s Nishant Sebastian Jose,Chartered Accountants as on 31 March 2024. The verification report, dated 29 May 2024, hasbeen submitted to us by the management. We have relied up on the aforesaid report.
(b) as per the inventory risk management policy introduced by the management during the year, aprovision of Rs. 576.67 lacs have been recognized on account of slow moving and/or non-movinginventory in the books of account.
(c) the Company has failed to comply with the provision of tax deducted at source as per chapter
- An amount of Rs. 9.87 lacs was deducted at source till 31 March 2023, however, the samehas not yet been deposited to the authorities by the Company. Subsequently, TDS returns notyet submitted for the same.
- An amount of Rs. 1.11 lacs has been deducted in respect of expenses incurred and Rs.14.64 lacs has been deducted in respect of purchases made during the financial year 2023¬24, however, the same has not yet been deposited to the authorities by the Company.
(d) the reconciliation of GST input tax credit between the credit lying in books and the credit availablein GSTR-2A at GST portal has been completed during the year. The consequent impact of thesame, an amount of Rs. 36.02 lacs have been taken to statement of profit and loss under thehead 'Rate and Taxes'.
(e) the reconciliation of software migration process between accounting database of previous legacypackage and current tally package (desktop version) was completed during the year. This processled to the following adjustment in the books of accounts:
Inventory Adjustment: An error was found where inventories were duplicated, amounting to Rs.18.50 lacs. To rectify this, the duplicated inventory amount was reversed by debiting therespective vendors' accounts.
Account Balances Adjustment: It was found that there were both debit and credit balancesamounting to Rs. 5.23 lacs in the accounts of the same parties. These balances were netted offagainst each other, to represent the net amounts owed to or by these parties.
(f) the Company had given advances amounting to Rs. 1,150.40 lacs during the course of businesswherein the Company is not able to track the progress of the work being assigned. Subsequently,the management has issued legal notices to the respective parties as a recovery proceedingagainst the advances being given.
(g) the Company had a credit facility of Rs. 170.00 lacs with ICICI Bank Limited, secured by creatinga charge on 2 (two) immovable properties owned by directors of the Company. As on the date ofnotice, an aggregate amount of Rs. 171.56 lacs were outstanding against this loan. On 1December 2023, the bank declared the loan as Non-Performing Assets (“NPA”) and subsequently,attached one of the properties for recovery of the outstanding amount. Further, the notice forsymbolic possession was issued by the bank on 3 April 2024.
In response, the Company has applied to the Debt Recovery T ribunal-1 ("DRT") at Ernakulam tochallenge the property attachment process. The application was submitted on 22 April 2024.Currently, the matter is pending for hearing before the DRT, and the next hearing date has notbeen fixed yet.
1. As required by the Companies (Auditor's Report) Order, 2020 (“the Order”), issued by the CentralGovernment of India in terms of sub-section (11) of section 143 of the Companies Act, 2013, we
give in the “Annexure A” a statement on the matters specified in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the
Order, to the extent applicable.
2. As required by Section 143(3) of the Act, based on our audit we report, to the extent applicable
that:
(a) We have sought and obtained all the information and explanations which to the best of ourknowledge and belief were necessary for the purposes of our audit.
(b) In our opinion, proper books of account as required by law have been kept by the Companyso far as it appears from our examination of those books.
(c) The Balance Sheet, the Statement of Profit and Loss and the Statement of Cash Flow dealtwith by this Report are in agreement with the books of account.
(d) except for the possible effects of the matters described under the Basis for QualifiedOpinion paragraph, in our opinion, the aforesaid standalone financial statements comply withthe Accounting Standards specified under Section 133 of the Act read with Rule 7 of theCompanies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 (as amended).
(e) The matter described in sub-paragraph (a) to (g) under the Emphasis of Matters paragraphabove, in our opinion, may have an adverse effect on the functioning of the Company.
(f) On the basis of the written representations received from the directors as on 31 March 2024taken on record by the Board of Directors, none of the directors is disqualified as on 31 March2024 from being appointed as a director in terms of Section 164 (2) of the Act.
(g) With respect to the adequacy of the Internal Financial Control with reference to StandaloneFinancial Statements of the Company and the operating effectiveness of such controls, referto our separate Report in the “Annexure B”.
(h) With respect to the other matters to be included in the Auditor's Report in accordance withRule 11 of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014, in our opinion and to the best ofour information and according to the explanations given to us:
i. The Company has disclosed the impact of pending litigations on its financial position inits standalone financial statements - refer Note No. 27 to the standalone financialstatement;
ii. The Company did not have any long-term contracts including derivative contracts forwhich there were any material foreseeable losses;
iii. There were no amounts which were required to be transferred to the InvestorEducation and Protection Fund by the Company during the year ended 31 March 2024;
iv.
> The management has represented that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, nofunds have been advanced or loaned or invested (either from borrowed funds or
share premium or any other sources or kind of funds) by the Company to or in anyother persons or entities, including foreign entities (“Intermediaries”), with theunderstanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, that the Intermediaryshall, whether, directly or indirectly lend or invest in other persons or entitiesidentified in any manner whatsoever (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) by or on behalf ofthe Company or provide any guarantee, security or the like to or on behalf of theUltimate Beneficiaries;
> The management has represented, that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, nofunds have been received by the Company from any persons or entities, includingforeign entities (“Funding Parties”), with the understanding, whether recorded inwriting or otherwise, that the Company shall, whether, directly or indirectly, lend orinvest in other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever (“UltimateBeneficiaries”) by or on behalf of the Funding Party or provide any guarantee,security or the like from or on behalf of the Ultimate Beneficiaries; and
> Based on such audit procedures as considered reasonable and appropriate in thecircumstances, nothing has come to our notice that has caused us to believe thatthe representations under subclause (a) and (b) above contain any material mis¬statement.
v. The Company has not declared or paid any dividend during the year ended 31 March2024.
(i) With respect to the other matters to be included in the Auditor's Report in accordance with therequirements of section 197(16) of the Act, as amended:
In our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us,the remuneration paid by the Company to its directors during the current year is in accordancewith the provisions of section 197 of the Act.
(j) Based on our examination which included test checks, the company has used an accountingsoftware for maintaining its books of account for the financial year ended March 31, 2024which does not have a feature of recording audit trail (edit log) facility, hence the same hasnot been operated throughout the year for all relevant transactions recorded in the software.
As proviso to Rule 3(1) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 is applicable from April 1,2023, reporting under Rule 11(g) of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014 onpreservation of audit trail as per the statutory requirements for record retention is notapplicable for the financial year ended March 31, 2024.
Chartered AccountantsFirm's Registration No.: 022743N
Partner
Membership No.: 514162UDIN: 24514162BKBHWD7096
Place: New DelhiDate: 07 June 2024