Calcutta, June 7: Reserve Bank of India has called for a minute scrutiny of the accounts of Rajasthan Bank Financial Services Ltd (RBFSL). The non-banking finance company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Rajasthan of the Keshav Bangur group.

An audit completed this week by M Bhandari & Co shows that the company has made a loss of around Rs 6 crore for the year ended March 31, 1997. Its net owned funds (NoF) worth Rs 5 crore has been wiped out.

The company has its corporate office in Calcutta, and the RBI office here has made a preliminary inspection of its accounts, which has been sent to the central office in Mumbai. Officials from the RBI office in Calcutta have been summoned to Mumbai for a discussion on the financials of the company and the auditors' comments.

The report of the auditors has also pointed out various "other liabilities" of the company. During 1995-96, the company had made a profit after tax of Rs 75.5 lakh against a gross revenue of about Rs 4 crore.

The company has also advanced inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) to nine group companies and the money so lent out has not been returned.

The exact amount could not be ascertained, but sources said that the figure was `considerable'. The company itself had accepted ICDs for short-term funding purposes and this formed part of its liabilities.

In fact, at the end of 1995-96, the company had "borrowed" from Bank of Rajasthan Rs 4.6 crore and Rs 4.1 crore as ICDs "from bodies corporate". Advances made in the form of ICDs amounted to around Rs 5 crore.

The employee strength of the company at its corporate office, which was 26, has been reduced to three, sources said.

This has given rise to speculation that the management might have plans of shifting the company's corporate office from Calcutta to Jaipur, where it has its registered office, sources said.

This is not the first time that the company has caught the attention of the central bank. An inspection of its holding company, Bank of Rajasthan, done in the middle of 1996, had also mentioned in passing that the accounts of the company would have to be scrutinised.

Bank of Rajasthan, too, is under Reserve Bank scrutiny. The allegations against it are of irregularities in foreign exchange transactions.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.