Paytm Slapped With Another Fine For Not Paying Stamp Duties

Fintech giant Paytm has been slapped with a fine of INR 47.12 Lakh for failing to pay stamp duties pertaining to allotment of equity shares in previous years.

Paytm in an exchange filing said, “We hereby inform that the company has received order(s) dated August 13, 2024, from the Office of Collector of Stamps, New Delhi, imposing a penalty aggregating to INR 47,12,000 with respect to non-payment of stamp duty on allotment of equity shares in the previous years.” 

The fintech major further said in the filing that the fine is levied on the non-payment of stamp duty aggregating to INR 1.43 Cr upon allotment of 10,26,386 equity shares of INR 10 each in the previous years.

It claimed to have submitted applications for payment of stamp duty at the relevant time, although there were delays of a few days in the submission of some applications.

This comes days after the company was slapped with multiple fines for failure to pay stamp duties pertaining to allotment of equity shares following exercise of employee stock options (ESOP) granted by the company in previous years.

Also, last month, Paytm received a show cause notice from market regulator SEBI concerning 2.1 Cr stock options granted to the company’s founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma in the fiscal year ended March 2022 (FY22).

The development comes a few days after Paytm expanded its employee stock option plan (ESOP) by allotting 1,10,357 equity shares to its eligible employees. 

Notably, it has made 4 ESOP offerings so far in 2024. Contrary to these positive measures for its workforce, reports around the company shedding its workforce by 15-20% this fiscal year were also making the rounds lately. 

Following the regulatory setback experienced by Paytm for most of 2024, it recently received a big relief with the government’s approval to invest INR 50 Cr in its payments arm, Paytm Payment Services. 

Paytm’s trouble time began with the RBI’s directive to halt operations of Paytm Payments Bank starting in March earlier this year. Just last month, Paytm also got an administrative warning letter from SEBI over related party transactions with PPBL in FY22, which were conducted without due approval of either the audit committee or the shareholders.

Paytm’s consolidated net loss widen to INR 840.1 Cr in the June quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25), up 134% year-on-year from INR 358.4 Cr in the year ago-period. Revenue from operations dropped 36% in Q1 FY25 to INR 1,502 Cr from INR 2,342 Cr in the corresponding quarter last year.