‘Big Four’ may face CCI probe as govt addresses 'gatekeeping' concerns: Report

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The Centre is seeking a Competition Commission of India probe into “gatekeeping” by the “Big Four” - KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC— following concerns that they created entry barriers for domestic firms, ETNow reports.

As per the report, the government believes that these auditing firms used their dominant position to undertake unfair practices that hindered the growth of smaller, domestic firms. Around 60 percent of all the Nifty companies were audited by one of the Big Four in FY18.

The firms offer audit, assurance services, tax services, management consulting, advisory, corporate finance and legal services.

The government, however, could look at "limiting the services they would be allowed to offer, check their independence and address conflict of interest", it said.

A cap on their fees was being considered as also disallowing tax advisory services, the report added. The latter contributes between 20-25 percent to the Big Four’s revenues, it said.