Job Description:

Role & Responsibilities:

Role Purpose:

The Head Accounts & Taxation is the single point of accountability for the accuracy, integrity and regulatory compliance of the NBFC's books of accounts, tax compliance, and financial control environment. Operating as a strategic partner to the function, the role goes beyond routine accounting & tax delivery to shape financial governance, drive audit and regulatory readiness, enable new business lines, and build a scalable, automated finance backbone benchmarked against the standards of leading diversified NBFCs in the Industry.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Financial Accounting & Close:

- Own the end-to-end monthly, quarterly and annual book closure and Board/investor MIS with no-surprise, first-time-right reporting.

- Drive a disciplined close calendar across the LMS, ensuring accounting integrity of high-volume retail/wholesale loan books and timely accurate accounting/recording of all transactions.

- Institutionalise ECL (Expected Credit Loss) governance methodology, model validation, overlays and provisioning rational.

- Close within T+3 every cycle.

- Zero material restatements.

- ECL model validated & audit-ready.

2. IND AS & Schedule III Financials:

- Ensure full technical compliance of financial statements with IND AS (109, 116, 32, etc.) and Schedule III (Division III) presentation for NBFCs.

- Track evolving accounting standards/ICAI guidance and provide the impact analysis and lead implementation of changes.

- Own the related-party transactions, segment and fair-value disclosures with technical rigor expected of a listed entity.

- Clean Ind AS opinion.

- Nil disclosure gaps.

3. RBI Regulatory Reporting:

- Ensure 100% accurate, on-time submission of all RBI/NBFC prudential returns (DNBS, CRILC, capital adequacy, Treasury related returns).

- Act as primary finance interface for RBI inspections - pre-inspection readiness, query resolution and risk mitigation action plans.

- Monitor regulatory developments (scale-based regulation, IND AS/RBI convergence, etc.) and proactively reposition policy, reporting frameworks and implement the changes, if any.

- 100% return timeliness.

- Nil RBI penalties/adverse remarks.

4. Direct & Indirect Taxation:

- Own the tax compliance - corporate tax, TDS, GST - including optimisation, litigation management and assessment/appeal representation, if any.

- Advise the business (product, treasury, co-lending, digital lending) on tax structuring for new products and partnerships before launch.

- Monitor Tax & Regulatory changes and implement, Provide the guidance to business from tax and Regulatory perspective.

- Build a defensible tax governance framework and maintain a healthy relationship with tax authorities and external counsel.

- Nil penal exposure.

- Litigation resolved/contained.

5. Internal Financial Controls (IFC):

- Design, implement and continuously test the IFC/ICFR framework across the finance value chain in line with the Companies Act and accepted control principles.

- Own the Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) programme with monthly control testing to identify and close gaps ahead of audit.

- Govern master data integrity - chart of accounts, tax masters, vendor/customer masters - with segregation of duties and system-enforced approvals.

- Standardize and update the finance processes, policies & SOPs.

- Zero significant control deficiencies.

- RCSA coverage 100%.

- Up-to-date policies, SOPs.

6. Audit Management:

- Lead statutory, internal, tax, concurrent and RBI audits end-to-end - readiness, query management and time-bound closure of observations.

- Own the relationship with key stakeholders for smooth audit closure.

- Drive root-cause based closure of audit actionable to prevent repeat observations across cycles.

- Nil material/repeat observations.

- 100% actionable closed on time.

7. Financial Systems & Automation:

- Drive automation and digitalization of finance processes to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.

- Partner with Tech to strengthen the finance systems architecture (ERP, LMS integration, RPA, data lake) for a fast-growing loan book.

- Benchmark processes against industry leaders and drive a continuous-improvement roadmap for the finance function.

- Documented automation gains each year.

- Reduced manual touchpoints in close.

8. Team Leadership:

- Build, mentor and retain a high-calibre Accounts & Taxation team; create career paths and succession depth for critical roles.

- Instil a culture of ownership, technical excellence and regulatory discipline across the team.

- Act as a strategic partner and coach to direct reports, enabling them to independently manage stakeholders.

- Attrition within benchmark.

- Engagement score improvement.

- Bench strength for key roles.

9. Stakeholder Management:

- Serve as a trusted finance partner to the HOD, CXOs and CEO on accounting, tax and regulatory matters.

- Bridge Finance with Business, Risk, Operations and Technology to enable new products/business lines with accounting and compliance readiness.

- High stakeholder satisfaction.

- Open items closed within agreed SLA.

Qualification and Experience:

- Chartered Accountant (CA) with ~ 12 years of progressive finance experience preferably from NBFC/HFC background.

- Deep technical mastery of IND AS, Schedule III, RBI prudential/NBFC regulations and direct/indirect tax law.

- Prior experience in a high-growth, scale-based-regulation NBFC, having operated at a similar role.

- Strong grip on ECL modelling, IFC/ICFR frameworks and regulatory reporting systems (NBS, DNBS, ALM returns).

- Sound judgement and integrity in navigating complex, ambiguous regulatory and accounting positions.