The Byju's and its founder and CEO Byju Raveendran have been served a show-cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for suspected violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). The alleged violations amount to Rs 9,362.35 crore. Now, the company has clarified that the queries in the notice primarily pertain to technical issues, such as the delay in filing Annual Performance Reports (APRs) related to compliant Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) investments of approximately Rs 8,000 crores. This delay was attributed to the delayed statutory audit for the financial year 2022. 

“We are in receipt of the notice from the Enforcement Directorate which now definitively concludes their investigation and the same has been stated in their press release dated November 21,” Edtech said in its statement issued to inform the media. 

The company added that the queries received in the notice are solely technical in nature such as delay in filing Annual Performance Reports (APRs) with respect to duly compliant ODI investments of close to Rs 8000 crores that arose from the delayed statutory audit (FY22).   

“The Company is advised that the delayed filing of APR (particularly when returns in relation to the receipt of FDI have been filed in time) is a technical issue and the Company is confident of successfully dealing with the case,” the statement added.  

“We would like to strongly emphasise that the ED notice does not specify any quantum of fine but rather highlights the quantum of FDI/ODI (9,000 crores) along with the deadlines that we missed in the reference period for this quantum,” the statement added. 

Such delayed reporting attracts a nominal fine, if any, the company clarified. “The Late Submission Fee for such reporting delays that can be imposed pursuant to the RBI regulations with respect to APRs is very nominal (Rs 7500) and by no means does the notice denote a fine,” it added. 

The ED has accused the company and its chief promoter on various grounds. These include not submitting documents for imports against advance payments made outside India and not realising proceeds from exports made outside India due to delayed filing of documents related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received by the company, among other charges.

The beleaguered Edtech company continues to make headlines as its investors, Prosus and Naspers, have marked down its valuation by 86 per cent, dropping from its peak valuation of $22 billion when the company secured $250 million from investors in October last year