Multi-national accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will challenge Rs 230 crore fine it was slapped with by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly breaching several provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

PwC is going to file an appeal at the tribunal level over the course of the next few days challenging the grounds on which ED has interpreted the law and imposed the fine, The Economic Times reported.

The probe agency said that the notice was issued under FEMA after completion of an investigation by the Special Director (Eastern Region) of ED.

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The ED officials said that PwC and six of its functionaries who were also slapped with the notices had received large sums of foreign investments from abroad by "falsely" showing them as 'grants'. They did it so as to avoid attracting provisions of FEMA, which require the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"The adjudicating authority during the course of adjudication has held the company guilty of violation of section 10(6), 6(2), 6(3) and 9(b) of FEMA, 1999 for receiving investments in the guise of purported grants in non-permitted sector without the approval of the RBI," the order said. The ED had taken over the probe against the firm on the direction of the Supreme Court which asked it to look into the affairs of the company from the point of view of FEMA.

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