In a recent turn of events in the insolvency case, Aakash Educational Services, a fully-owned subsidiary of the troubled edtech company, has filed a claim of Rs 1,400 crore (approximately $166 million) against it, according to a document seen by YourStory.
The document, available on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India’s (IBBI) website, stated Byju’s owed Rs 1,404 crore to Aakash Educational Services, which was listed as an “unsecured financial creditor.” Besides Aakash, the company also owed Rs 20.3 crore to InCred Financial Services, Rs 47 crore to Aditya Birla Finance and over Rs 11,000 crore to Glas Trust Company, which represents the edtech’s US-based term loan B lenders.
IBBI has requested Anglo Asia Limited and Aakash Educational Services Limited for clarifications, the document further noted.
According to a chartered accountant (CA) YourStory spoke with, a wholly-owned subsidiary does lend its parent company money for various operational purposes.
“It’s not unusual for a wholly-owned subsidiary to give its parent a loan. But this suggests that Byju’s must have not repaid back the loan or it may be repaying it in installments, but before getting admitted to insolvency, it owed Aakash Rs 1,400 crore,” the CA said.
Another document on IBBI’s website further showed the tax departments from the Government of India and the Government of Karnataka have put forth a claim of over Rs 848 crore (around $101 million) as part of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).
According to the document, claims received from the Government of India, including the Central Board Of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) and the Department of Revenue, amount to over Rs 157 crore. Meanwhile, claims from the Government of Karnataka, including those from the Commercial Tax Department, are over Rs 184 crore and Rs 506 crore, respectively.
The website further showed that 1,784 employees of the embattled edtech firm had filed claims worth more than Rs 300 crore, while 94 vendors filed claims worth close to Rs 380 crore. In total, 1,887 parties have filed claims worth over Rs 15,000 crore, of which the biggest four claims were by the unsecured financial creditors, which included Aakash, Aditya Birla, and Glas Trust.
Reuters was the first to report on the government dues being claimed from BYJU’S. A spokesperson for BYJU’S said that all the claims were unverified.
BYJU’S’ insolvency-related events began on July 16 when the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted a plea filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), seeking to initiate a CIRP for BYJU’S’ parent company, Think and Learn Private Limited (TLPL).
BYJU’S, which dodged a potential “death” after the NCLAT approved a Rs 158 crore settlement between the edtech firm and the BCCI on August 2, is undergoing an insolvency process following an interim order by the Supreme Court of India on August 14, staying the appellate tribunal’s decision.
