RBI orders Rs 4.84 crore compounding from real‑estate firm BPTP

The Reserve Bank of India has ordered BPTP Ltd and its directors Kabir Chawla and Sudhanshu Tripathi to pay a compounding amount of Rs 4.84 crore for violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The Enforcement Directorate’s Gurgaon unit uncovered the breach while investigating foreign direct investment received by the developer, formerly known as Business Park Town Planners Private Ltd. The probe traced about Rs 537.5 crore of overseas capital from CPI India Ltd (Mauritius) and Harbor Victoria Investment Holding Ltd.

RBI’s notice references Section 15(1) of FEMA, 1999, and the related rules. BPTP had taken USD 7.767 crore (≈Rs 322.5 crore) on 21 August 2007 from CPI India Ltd and USD 4.984 crore (≈Rs 215 crore) on 9 July 2008 from Harbor Victoria.

The investment contracts included put‑option and guaranteed internal rate of return (IRR) clauses, which were prohibited under the FDI regulations applicable at the time. The ED alleged that the company secured the funds through the automatic route but promised investors a fixed return via swap and put‑option mechanisms.

The investigation also revealed that BPTP diverted roughly Rs 320 crore of the foreign money into fixed‑deposit and mutual‑fund investments instead of using it for its real‑estate projects, leading to an additional FEMA violation.