We have audited the financial statements of FRANKLIN LEASING AND FINANCE LIMITED (“the Company”),which comprise the balance sheet as at 31st March 2024, and the statement of Profit and Loss andstatement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summaryof significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.
In our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us, theaforesaid financial statements give the information required by the Act in the manner so required and givea true and fair view in conformity with the accounting principles generally accepted in India, of the state ofaffairs of the Company as at 31st March, 2024, its profit and its cash flows for the year ended on that date.
Basis for Opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with the Accounting Standards (AS) specified under section 143(10)of the Companies Act, 2013. Our responsibilities under those Standards are further described in theAuditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of our report. We areindependent of the Company in accordance with the Code of Ethics issued by the Institute of CharteredAccountants of India together with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financialstatements under the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Rules thereunder, and we havefulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements and the Code of Ethics.We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for ouropinion.
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in ouraudit of the financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of ouraudit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide aseparate opinion on these matters. We have determined the matters described below to be the key auditmatters to be communicated in our report.
S. No.
Key Audit Matter
Auditor's Response
1.
Nil
The Company's board of directors is responsible for the preparation of the other information. The otherinformation comprises the information included in the Board's Report including Annexures to Board'sReport but does not include the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon.
Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express anyform of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other informationand, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financialstatements or our knowledge obtained during the course of our audit or otherwise appears to be materiallymisstated.
If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this otherinformation, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.
The Company's Board of Directors is responsible for the matters stated in section 134(5) of the CompaniesAct, 2013 (“the Act”) with respect to the preparation of these financial statements that give a true and fairview of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Company in accordance with theaccounting principles generally accepted in India, including the Accounting Standards (AS) specified undersection 133 of the Act. 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 for preventingand detecting frauds and other irregularities; selection and application of appropriate accounting policies;making judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and design, implementation andmaintenance of adequate internal financial controls, that were operating effectively for ensuring theaccuracy and completeness of the accounting records, relevant to the preparation and presentation of thefinancial statements that give a true and fair view and are free from material misstatement, whether due tofraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the Company's ability tocontinue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the goingconcern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the Company or to ceaseoperations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.
Those Board of Directors are also responsible for overseeing the Company's financial reporting process.Auditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole arefree from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report thatincludes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an auditconducted in accordance with SAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatementscan arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they couldreasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financialstatements.
As part of an audit in accordance with SAs, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professionalskepticism throughout the audit. We also:
• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud orerror, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that issufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a materialmisstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involvecollusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures thatare appropriate in the circumstances. Under section 143(3)(i) of the Companies Act, 2013, we are alsoresponsible for expressing our opinion on whether the company has adequate internal financial controlssystem in place and the operating effectiveness of such controls.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimatesand related disclosures made by management.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of management's use of the going concern basis of accounting and,based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditionsthat may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude thata material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the relateddisclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Ourconclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. However,future events or conditions may cause the Company to cease to continue as a going concern.
• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including thedisclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in amanner that achieves fair presentation.
We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scopeand timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internalcontrol that we identify during our audit.
We also provide those charged with governance with a statement that we have complied with relevantethical requirements regarding independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and othermatters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, relatedsafeguards.
From the matters communicated with those charged with governance, we determine those matters thatwere of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and are thereforethe key audit matters. We describe these matters in our auditor's report unless law or regulation precludespublic disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare circumstances, we determine that a mattershould not be communicated in our report because the adverse consequences of doing so wouldreasonably be expected to outweigh the public interest benefits of such communication.
1. As required by the Companies (Auditor's Report) Order, 2020 (“the Order”), issued by the Central
Government 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, we report 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 Company sofar as it appears from our examination of those books.
c) The Balance Sheet, the Statement of Profit and Loss and the Cash Flow Statement dealt with bythis Report are in agreement with the books of account.
d) In our opinion, the aforesaid financial statements comply with the Accounting Standards (AS)specified under Section 133 of the Act, read with Rule 7 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules,2014.
e) On the basis of the written representations received from the directors as on 31st March, 2024taken on record by the Board of Directors, none of the directors is disqualified as on 31stMarch, 2024 from being appointed as a director in terms of Section 164 (2) of the Act.
f) With respect to the adequacy of the internal financial controls with reference to financialstatements of the Company and the operating effectiveness of such controls, refer to ourseparate Report in 'Annexure B'.
g) 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 does not have any pending litigations which would impact its financialposition.
ii. The Company did not have any long-term contracts including derivative contracts for whichthere were any material foreseeable losses.
iii. There were no amounts which were required to be transferred to the Investor Educationand Protection Fund by the Company.
iv. (a) The management has represented that, to the best of it's knowledge and belief, no fundshave been advanced or loaned or invested (either from borrowed funds or share premium orany other sources or kind of funds) by the company to or in any other person(s) or entity(ies),including foreign entities (“Intermediaries”), with the understanding, whether recorded inwriting or otherwise, that the Intermediary shall, whether, directly or indirectly lend or investin other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of thecompany (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf ofthe Ultimate Beneficiaries;
(b) The management has represented, that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, no funds havebeen received by the company from any person(s) or entity(ies), including foreign entities(“Funding Parties”), with the understanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, thatthe company shall, whether, directly or indirectly, lend or invest in other persons or entitiesidentified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of the Funding Party (“UltimateBeneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf of the UltimateBeneficiaries; and
(c) Based on such audit procedures that have been considered reasonable and appropriate in thecircumstances, nothing has come to our notice that has caused us to believe that therepresentations under sub-clause (i) and (ii) of Rule 11(e), as provided under (a) and (b)above, contain any material mis-statement.
v. No dividend has been declared or paid during the year by the company.
3. The Company has paid/ provided for managerial remuneration in accordance with the requisiteapprovals mandated by the provisions of Section 197 read with Schedule V to the Act.
4. Based on our examination carried out, we report that the company has used accountingsoftware for maintaining its books of account which has a feature of recording audit trail(edit log) facility and the same has operated throughout the year for all relevanttransactions recorded in the software. Further, during the course of our audit we did notcome across any instance of audit trail feature being tampered with.
As per proviso to Rule 3(1) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 (as amended), which providesfor the feature of recording of audit trail (edit log) facility in the accounting software used by theCompany for maintenance of books of account and related matters, is applicable for the Companyonly with effect from financial year beginning April 1, 2024, the reporting under clause (g) of Rule11 is currently not applicable.
Chartered Accountants
Firm Regn No. 135901W
Partner
Membership No. 403437
Place: Mumbai
UDIN : 24403437BKAJME3280