Market regulator SEBI’s full-time member Ashwini Bhatia on Friday asked chartered accountants (CAs) to be more cautious while auditing companies listed on the SME exchange platform. Addressing an industry event of CAs, Bhatia said that it is important to look at listed SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) more carefully as these companies will become part of the main board in future. According to PTI news, Bhatia, a banker turned capital market regulator, said that we have seen some challenges there (SME platform).

Small companies will become very big in the future
The SEBI member said that we request you to be extra careful as far as SME IPOs and fund raising are concerned as these small companies will become very big in the future. Expressing satisfaction over the development of the SME platform, Bhatia said that Rs 14,000 crore has been raised by such entities, of which Rs 6,000 crore has been raised in FY24 alone. He compared CAs to doctors and said they act as first-level regulators by ensuring orderly operations of companies.

If CAs did their work diligently…
The SEBI full-time member said that many SEBI investigations and orders, which take more than a year to complete, would not have been needed if CAs did their work more diligently. It is worth noting that in March this year, SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had raised concerns about price manipulation in SME platform listings and trading and asked investors to be cautious. Meanwhile, addressing the CAs on Friday, Bhatia recalled the conduct of SBI’s previous chairman R K Talwar and said that the strength of character of the leader helps build great institutions.

Bhatia also said that despite the regulator creating rules to enable delisting, the experience has been the opposite and there is little interest on that front. The full-time member indicated that the low interest in delisting is due to high valuations and added that foreign companies are also considering listing in India.