Registered Valuer Services — Who Is Authorised to Sign, and How to Check

Before 2017, anyone could sign a valuation report in India. There was no register, no prescribed qualification, no examination and no disciplinary mechanism outside the professional bodies to which a valuer might happen to belong. Reports varied from rigorous analysis to a page of assertion, and courts choosing between two irreconcilable valuations had no standard against which to test either.

That changed with Section 247 of the Companies Act, 2013 and the rules made under it. Valuation for most statutory purposes is now a regulated activity performed by a named individual, registered for a specific asset class, subject to a code of conduct and answerable for the report. A valuation signed by someone outside that framework is not merely weak evidence — for the purposes it is required, it does not satisfy the requirement at all.

This page covers who may act and how to confirm it. N D Savla & Associates provides registered valuer services across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Goa, and advises boards and investors on whether a report they have been given was validly issued. How an engagement itself runs is dealt with under valuation services.

What Does Section 247 Require?

Section 247 provides that where a valuation is required under the Companies Act in respect of any property, stocks, shares, debentures, securities, goodwill, any other assets or the net worth of a company or its liabilities, it shall be valued by a person having the prescribed qualifications and experience, registered as a valuer and a member of a recognised organisation of valuers.

The Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules, 2017 supply the machinery. The Central Government designated the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India as the authority administering the framework, and from 1 February 2019 every valuation required under the Companies Act, 2013 and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 has had to be conducted by a registered valuer.

The section also fixes responsibility. A registered valuer must make an impartial, true and fair valuation, exercise due diligence, and not undertake valuation of any asset in which they have a direct or indirect interest. Contravention carries penalty, and where the contravention is committed with intent to defraud, the consequences extend to refunding the remuneration and compensating the company for loss arising from the valuation.

What Are the Registration Requirements?

Registered valuers organisations act as front-line regulators. Bodies established by the professional institutes and by valuation associations are recognised as such, and they conduct the educational courses, enforce a code of conduct, provide continuing professional education and handle first-instance grievances against their members. The syllabus for the courses is determined by the authority rather than by each organisation independently, which is what keeps standards comparable across them.

When Must a Registered Valuer Be Used?

The requirement is triggered by the purpose, not by the size of the transaction. The recurring situations are:

• Preferential allotment and private placement of shares, where the issue price must be supported
• Schemes of arrangement, amalgamation and demerger, where the share exchange ratio is supported by a valuation report — including under the fast track route
• Non-cash transactions involving directors, and purchase of minority shareholding
• Corporate insolvency resolution, liquidation, voluntary liquidation and pre-packaged insolvency, where fair value and liquidation value are determined
• Reduction of share capital and other applications before the tribunal requiring valuation evidence
• Registration or transfer of securities where a statutory pricing floor applies

Two important exclusions. Valuation for foreign exchange pricing purposes on transactions between residents and non-residents requires a SEBI-registered merchant banker rather than a registered valuer in the relevant cases, which is dealt with separately under merchant banker valuation and certification. And valuation for financial reporting purposes is governed by accounting standards, where the auditor tests the input rather than the registration of the person who prepared it.

How Did the Valuation Profession Become Regulated?

India took over a century to move from an informal practice to a registered profession, and the last decade has done most of the work. The earliest formal valuation in Indian law arose under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, where officers determined market value for compensation on compulsory acquisition. That was an administrative function rather than a profession, and it produced a body of case law on market value without producing any qualification framework. Through the twentieth century, valuation developed around individual statutes: the Wealth-tax Act recognised registered valuers for its own purposes, banks maintained panels of approved valuers for mortgage lending, and insurers used their own surveyors. Each regime was self-contained.

The consequence was fragmentation. A valuer approved by a bank had no standing before a court; a wealth-tax registered valuer had no particular competence in business valuation; and nothing prevented an unqualified person from signing a report for a company law purpose. As corporate transactions grew after liberalisation, the absence of a common framework became a serious weakness — valuation disputes multiplied, and the resolution of them turned on the relative persuasiveness of two unregulated opinions.

The Companies Act, 2013 responded with Section 247, but the provision could not operate without rules and an administering authority, and both took four years. The Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules, 2017 were notified in October 2017, establishing the three asset classes, the qualification and examination requirements, the registered valuers organisation structure and the code of conduct. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India was designated as the authority — a pragmatic choice at the time, since the Board was being established alongside the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and the Code generated the largest single demand for regulated valuation.

Enforcement began on 1 February 2019, from which date every valuation under the Companies Act and the Code had to be conducted by a registered valuer. A proposal for a dedicated institution followed: a committee reporting in 2020 recommended a National Institute of Valuers on the model of the professional institutes, and a draft Valuers Bill was circulated for comment. That legislation was not enacted.

The institutional question has returned in a different form. The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2026 and referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, proposes amending Section 247 to designate the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India expressly as the Valuation Authority — granting certificates of registration and recognition, recommending valuation standards and enforcing compliance, with powers of suspension and monetary penalty. Separately, the Income-tax Rules, 2026 created a distinct registered valuer framework for tax purposes with its own examination and reporting requirements, effective from 1 April 2026.

We confirm eligibility before the engagement, not after. Asset class, registration status and independence checked at the outset. The auditor independence bar in particular catches groups who assume their existing adviser can extend into valuation work.

Multi-asset engagements coordinated properly. Where a transaction spans securities, land and machinery, we arrange the registered individuals for each class and coordinate the aggregation rather than leaving the client to assemble three unrelated reports.

Current with a framework that moved in 2026. Binding international standards under the Code from April 2026, prescribed report formats from June 2026, and a separate tax valuer regime from the same date. Practice built on the earlier position no longer satisfies the requirement.

We will tell you when a registered valuer is not what you need. Foreign exchange pricing certificates require a merchant banker rather than a registered valuer in the relevant cases, and financial reporting valuations are governed by accounting standards. Appointing the wrong professional wastes both the fee and the time.

Six offices across Maharashtra and Goa. Andheri, Charni Road, Vashi, Thane, New Panvel and Panaji. Registration attaches to individuals, and having registered valuers reachable across the region is what makes multi-site engagements practical.