CALCUTTA, June 8: The Reserve Bank of India has called for a more minute scrutiny of the accounts of Rajasthan Bank Financial Services Ltd (RBFSL). This non-banking financial 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 incurred a loss of around Rs 5/6 crore for the year ended March 31, 1997. Its net owned funds (NoF) was Rs 5 crore which 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 which has led to the present situation. 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.

RBFSL 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 financing purposes and this formed part of its liabilities.

In fact, as at the end of 1995-96, the company had ``borrowed'' from Bank of Rajasthan of 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 3, said sources. This has given rise to speculations that the management might have plans of shifting the company's corporate office from Calcutta to Jaipur, where it has its registered office.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.