BENARES HOTELS LIMITED

Report on the Audit of the Financial Statements

Opinion

We have audited the accompanying financial statements of Benares Hotels Limited (“the Company”), which comprise the balance sheet as at 31 March 2024, and the statement of Profit and Loss (including other comprehensive income), the statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of material accounting policies and other explanatory information (hereinafter referred to as “financial statements”).

In our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us, the aforesaid financial statements give the information required by the Companies Act, 2013 ('the Act') in the manner so required and give a true and fair view in conformity with the Indian Accounting Standards prescribed under section 133 of the Act read with the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015, as amended, Ind AS and other accounting principles generally accepted in India, of the state of affairs of the Company as at 31 March 2024, its profit and other comprehensive income, changes in equity and its cash flows for the year ended on that date.

Basis for Opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with the Standards on Auditing (SAs) specified under Section 143(10) of the Act. Our responsibilities under those SAs are further described in the Auditor's Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of our report. We are independent of the Company in accordance with the Code of Ethics issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (“ICAI”) together with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements under the provisions of the Act and the Rules thereunder, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements and the Code of Ethics. We believe that the audit evidence obtained by us is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion on the financial statements.

Key Audit Matters

Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in our audit of the financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters.

We have determined the matter described below to be the key audit matter to be brought to your attention.

Information Other than the Financial Statements and Auditors’ Report Thereon

The Company’s Management and Board of Directors are responsible for the preparation of the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Directors report but does not include the financial statements and our auditors' report thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained during the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.

If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Responsibilities of the Management and Board of Directors for Financial Statements

The Company’s Management and Board of Directors are responsible for the matters stated in Section 134(5) of the Act with respect to the preparation of these financial statements that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs, profit and other comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows of the Company in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in India, including the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) specified under Section 133 of the Act. This responsibility also includes maintenance of adequate accounting records in accordance with the provisions of the Act for safeguarding of the assets of the Company and for preventing and detecting frauds and other irregularities; selection and application of appropriate accounting policies; making judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and design, implementation and maintenance of adequate internal financial controls, that were operating effectively for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the accounting records, relevant to the preparation and presentation of the financial statements that give a true and fair view and are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, Management and Board of Directors are responsible for assessing the Company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Board of Directors either intends to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

The Board of Directors is also responsible for overseeing the Company's financial reporting process.

Auditors’ Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditors’ report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with SAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

As part of an audit in accordance with SAs, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.

• Obtain an understanding of internal financial control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. Under section 143(3)(I) of the Act, we are also responsible for expressing our opinion on whether the company has adequate internal financial controls with reference to the financial statements in place and the operating effectiveness of such controls.

• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the Management.

• Conclude on the appropriateness of Management and Board of Directors use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditors' report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditors' report.

However, future events or conditions may cause the Company to cease to continue as a going concern; and

• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

We also provide those charged with governance with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements regarding independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards. From the matters communicated with those charged with governance, we determine those matters that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and are therefore the key audit matters. We describe these matters in our auditors' report unless law or regulation precludes public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare circumstances, we determine that a matter should not be communicated in our report because the adverse consequences of doing so would reasonably be expected to outweigh the public interest benefits of such communication.

Report on Other Legal and Regulatory Requirements

1. As required by the Companies (Auditors' Report) Order, 2020 (“the Order”), issued by the Central Government of India in terms of Section 143 (11) of the Act, we give in the “Annexure A” a statement on the matters specified in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Order, to the extent applicable

2. As required by Section 143(3) of the Act, we report that:

(a) We have sought and obtained all the information and explanations which to the best of our knowledge and belief were necessary for the purposes of our audit.

(b) In our opinion, proper books of account as required by law have been kept by the Company so far as it appears from our examination of those books, except for our qualifications relating to audit trail requirement stated in paragraph 2(h)(vi) - (a),(b) & (c) below on reporting under Rule 11(g) of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014.

(c) The Balance Sheet, the Statement of Profit and Loss (including other comprehensive income), the Statement of Changes in Equity and the statement of cash flows dealt with by this Report are in agreement with the books of account.

(d) In our opinion, the aforesaid financial statements comply with the (Ind AS) specified under Section 133 of the Act.

(e) On the basis of the written representations received from the directors as on 31 March 2024 taken on record by the Board of Directors, none of the directors is disqualified as on 31 March 2024 from being appointed as a director in terms of Section 164 (2) of the Act.

(f) There are no qualifications, adverse remarks or reservations relating to the maintenance of books of accounts except for matter stated in para paragraph 2(h)(vi) below on audit trail requirement under Rule 11(g) of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014.

(g) With respect to the adequacy of the internal financial controls with reference to the financial statements of the Company and the operating effectiveness of such controls, refer to our separate Report in “Annexure B”.

(h) With respect to the other matters to be included in the Auditors' Report in accordance with Rule 11 of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014, in our opinion and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us:

i. The Company has disclosed the impact of pending litigations as at 31 March 2024 on its financial position in its financial statements - Refer Note No. 30 of the financial statements;

ii. The Company did not have any long-term contracts including derivative contracts for which there were any material foreseeable losses.

iii. There has been no delay in transferring amounts, required to be transferred, to the Investor Education and Protection Fund by the Company during the year ended 31 March 2024; and

iv. a) The management has represented that, to

the best of its knowledge and belief, as disclosed in the notes to the accounts, no funds have been advanced or loaned or invested (either from borrowed funds or share premium or any other sources or kind of funds) by the company to or in any other person(s) or entity(ies), includ-

ing foreign entities (“Intermediaries”), with the understanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, that the Intermediary shall, whether, directly or indirectly lend or invest in other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of the company (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf of the Ultimate Beneficiaries

(b) The management has represented, that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, as disclosed in the notes to the accounts, no funds have been received by the company from any person(s) or entity(ies), including foreign entities (“Funding Parties”), with the understanding, whether recorded in writing or otherwise, that the company shall, whether, directly or indirectly, lend or invest in other persons or entities identified in any manner whatsoever by or on behalf of the Funding Party (“Ultimate Beneficiaries”) or provide any guarantee, security or the like on behalf of the Ultimate Beneficiaries

(c) Based on such audit procedures that we have considered reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances, nothing has come to our notice that has caused us to believe that the representations under sub-clause (a) and (b) contain any material mis-statement.

v. a) The final dividend paid by the Company

during the year, in respect of the same declared for the previous year, is in accordance with Section 123 of the Act to the extent it applies to payment of dividend.

(b) As stated in Note No. 46 of the financial statements, the Board of Directors of the Company has proposed final dividend for the year which is subject to the approval of the members at the ensuing Annual General Meeting. The dividend declared is in accordance with Section 123 of the Act to the extent it applies to declaration of dividend.

vi. Relying on representations/explanations from the company and software vendors and based on our examination which includes test checks and as explained in Note No. 49 of the financial statements, the Company has used

accounting softwares for maintaining its books of account, which have a feature of recording audit trail (edit log) facility for all relevant transactions recorded in the respective softwares, except for:

(a) In ERP used for maintaining books of accounts of its units except one, the feature of recording audit trail (edit log) facility was enabled at the application layer of the accounting software which is mainly ERP for masters and transactions majorly during June 2023 and July 2023.

(b) In ERP used for maintaining books of accounts of one of its units, the audit trail (edit log) facility for data changes performed by users having privileged access was enabled from 21 December 2023 onwards at the application layer and accordingly, such audit trail feature was not enabled for the period 01 April 2023 to 20 December 2023.

(c) For all the units, the feature of the recording audit trail (edit log) facility was not enabled at the database level to log any direct data changes for the accounting software used for maintaining the books of accounts.

Further, for the periods where the audit trail (edit log) facility was enabled and operated throughout the year for the respective accounting softwares, we did not come across any instance of the audit trail feature being tampered with.

3. With respect to the matter to be included in the Auditors’ Report under Section 197(16) of the Act: In our opinion and according to the information and explanations given to us, the remuneration paid by the Company to its directors during the current year is in accordance with the provisions of Section 197 of the Act. The remuneration paid to any director is not in excess of the limit laid down under Section 197 of the Act.

For PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP

Chartered Accountants

Firm's Registration No.003990S/S200018

R. Suriyanarayanan

Partner

Membership No. 201402 UDIN: 24201402BKFWXL5723

Place of Signature: Mumbai Date: 19 April 2024