The Reserve Bank of India has hiked the remuneration payable to statutory central and branch auditors of public sector banks by 25 per cent across the board from 2003-04 onwards.

For statutory central audits of PSU banks, the first slab for total assets size has been raised up to Rs 18,000 crore (Rs 180 billion) from up to Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) and audit fees has been pegged at Rs 4,25,000.

The central bank has added two new slabs for statutory central audit. The audit fees for PSU banks with total asset size of between Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) and up to Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) is Rs 5,38,000.

The fee for banks with asset size of between Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) and Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) is Rs 5,63,000.

Audit fees payable to statutory central auditors conducting audits on banks with total assets of Rs 90,000 crore and above is pegged at Rs 5,88,000.

In the case of branch audits, the RBI has added three new asset size slabs.

For branches having asset size between Rs 175 crore and Rs 500 crore, the audit fee is pegged at Rs 200,000.

Fees for long format audit report and tax audit conducted by SCAs and branch auditors have also been increased by 25 per cent as these are calculated as percentages of basic audit fees.

Further, fees for additional certifications for SCAs have been increased from the earlier rate of 10 per cent of basic audit fees to 12 per cent of basic audit fees.

Additional fees of Rs 20,000 per certificate for additional certifications required by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, will also be payable by banks to SCAs even as fees for auditing of consolidated financial statements is also payable to them.

Daily conveyance charges for SCAs and branch auditors have been increased by 50 per cent.