But this does not in any way absolve ITC of the charges made by the Enforcement Directorate, an RBI source said.
Even if an RBI probe, with its limited scope, does not point to prima facie violation of Fera, one carried out by the En-forcement Direc-torate, equipped to carry out a more intensive investigation, may point to such a direction.
This is a problem we have faced in the past also, during the securities scam, for example, the source admitted.
We can only look into the propriety of banking transactions, but not of the other actions of a firm. So, even if we do find evidence of irregularities, the scope of our powers is extremely limited, he explained.
There is, therefore, no probe by the RBI into ITCs actions.
The RBI source said the Enforcement Directorates probe into the alleged wrongdoings by ITC and ITC Global has a scope wider than the type normally undertaken by the RBI.
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According to information avai-lable with Busi-ness Standard, the RBI did, in fact, find irregularities in the ITC deals, and refer-red one or two instances to the Enforcement Di-r ectorate.
But this could not be confirmed with the RBI as its official spo- kesperson refu-sed to comment on the issue.
In the past, there have been instances where the RBI has referred violations by a company to Fera.
But in certain cases, business transactions seem genuine and associated documents appear to be correct, the source said.
Permissions for extensions are common in cases of nearly all corporates which do not appear to have any malafide intentions, the spokesperson said.
5% exports get Fera relaxations
Nandini Goswami CALCUTTA
Nearly four to five per cent of Indias outstanding exports are given extensions and permissions for delayed remittances by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of the sort given to ITC Ltd.
Such permission is believed to have been granted and automatically approved by the central bank in case of ITC and ITC Global.
If an application prima facie looks good, we as a matter of rule have to approve it, an RBI source said.
The RBIs role in allowing such extensions and delays in remittances has been identified as one of the problems with ITC Ltds transactions abroad in course of its exports.