Delhi Govt to Undertake Revenue Audit of Concessionaires in Narela, Bawana Industrial Areas

• The Delhi government will review the two industrial areas developed under a PPP model by DSIIDC.

• Auditors will examine concessionaire accounts, GST records, tax reports, escrow accounts and related documents.

• The exercise will check for revenue suppression, fund diversion, leakage, excess collection and other deviations.

The Delhi government will undertake an audit of the Narela and Bawana industrial areas for the period 2011-12 to 2025-26, to identify if there were any irregularities and its financial impact, officials said on Monday.

Both industrial areas were set up under a public private partnership (PPP) model by the government agency Delhi State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) for redevelopment, operation, and maintenance of industrial infrastructure in the city.

Under the concession agreement, special purpose vehicles were incorporated and appointed as concessionaires by the DSIIDC.

The concessionaires were entrusted with designing, financing, redeveloping, constructing, operating, and maintaining infrastructure facilities such as roads, drainage, water supply, wastewater systems, solid waste management, parking, horticulture and street lighting within the industrial areas in Narela and Bawana.

The DSIIDC has floated tenders to engage auditors for revenue audits of the concessionaires, officials said.

The auditors will scrutinise the audited financial statements, statutory audit reports, tax audit reports, GST records, management representations and all related records maintained by the concessionaires.

Verification of the bills raised by the concessionaires, revenue collection, amount transferred to them from escrow account, amount payable or excess payments and identification of any deviations or irregularities, its financial implications, if any, will also be part of audit exercise, said official documents.

The audit will include reconciliation with bank statements, escrow accounts, ledgers, unit-wise records, agreements, approvals and audited financial statements to identify any suppression of revenue, diversion of funds, leakage, understatement, unauthorised recovery, excess collection among others, said the document.

The auditor will also quantify the financial impact of any "irregularity or recoverable amount" detected during the audit, it added.