IT officials quiz PB Fintech-owned Paisabazaar over ‘certain vendors’

The company has provided the information required by the IT officials and shall continue to provide any further details/information that might be required by the department in future, the firm said in a filing to the exchanges

Income tax officials have conducted an enquiry about certain vendors of PB Fintech-owned Paisabazaar that stretched for two consecutive days this week, the fintech unicorn said in a filing with exchanges on December 15.

“The company has provided the information required by the IT officials and shall continue to provide any further details/information that might be required by the department in future,” the firm said in the filing.

The Income Tax officials visited Paisabazaar Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (“Paisabazaar”), a wholly-owned subsidiary and PB Fintech Limited on December 13 and 14.

The latest development comes just a month after Paisabazaar was fined Rs 1 lakh by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for employing Naveen Kukreja before his clearing NISM exam.

Also Read: Paisabazaar fined Rs 1 lakh; CEO Naveen Kukreja had NISM certification pending

The order issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said that the investment advisory had appointed Naveen Kukreja, who had not cleared National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) Certification.

However, in the filing on October 15, PB Fintech clarified that there is no business impact from the SEBI order.

“The business operations of Paisabazaar continue as usual and have not been impacted due to the survey proceedings,” it said.

PB Fintech reported a sharp contraction in its consolidated loss at Rs 12 crore for the quarter ended June 2023, a dramatic reduction from the Rs 204 crore loss it reported during the first quarter of last year.

The company’s credit business under Paisabazaar has an annualised run rate of Rs 16,000 crore disbursal and the platform has also managed to issue 5.8 lakh credit cards on an annualised basis. Around 75 percent of its loan disbursals were to existing customers, it added.