Protean eGov Technologies Limited ($544021)

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Protean eGov Technologies Limited Q4 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call hosted by Go India Advisors LLP. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Pushpa Mani, Head IR of Protean eGov Technologies Limited. Thank you, and over to you.

Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the quarter 3 and FY '26 results discussion. You must have received the results, press release and investor presentation of the company, which is available on BSE and NSE and as well as on the company's website. As usual, we will start the forum with the opening remarks by our CEO and CFO, and then we will open the floor for the question-and-answer session. If any of your questions remain unanswered, you may reach out to us afterwards. The management on today's call would be represented by Mr. V. Easwaran, Whole-Time Director and CEO; Mr. Rakesh Doshi, Chief Business and Product Officer; Mr. Sandeep Mantri, CFO; and myself, Pushpa Mani, Head, Investor Relations. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature, and we believe that the expectations contained in these statements are reasonable. However, these statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may lead to different results. With this, I invite our MD, Mr. V. Easwaran, to address you all. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you Pushpa, and good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Protean eGov Technologies earnings call for the fourth quarter and the full year ended 31st March 2026. India's digital economy continues to witness strong momentum driven by rapid formalization, rising Internet penetration, increasing financial inclusion and continued expansion of digital public infrastructure across sectors. Over the last few years, India has emerged as a global leader in population scale digital system with platforms such as UPI, Aadhar and Pension, transforming the delivery of financial and citizen services at unprecedented scale. Simultaneously, increasing adoption of digital identity, pension inclusion and open digital ecosystem across sectors such as insurance, health care and agriculture continue to create large long-term opportunities for technology-led infrastructure providers like Protea. Against this backdrop, FY '26 has been a landmark year for Protean as we continue to strengthen our position as one of India's leading digital public infrastructure companies. Our performance during the year reflects the strength of our core businesses, continued market leadership across critical population scale ecosystems and our ability to participate meaningfully in India's rapidly expanding digital economy. Coming to our financial performance. FY '26 was a milestone year for Protean as we delivered our highest ever consolidated revenue from operations of INR 998 crores, reflecting a strong 18.7% year-on-year growth. EBITDA grew strongly by 27% to INR 188 crores with EBITDA margins improving to 17.6%. Adjusted profit after tax stood at INR 105 crores despite continued investments in new growth initiatives. These results demonstrate the resilience of our diversified business model and the increasing relevance of digital infrastructure-led services in India's formalization journey. Turning to our core businesses. Our tax services business continued to deliver strong performance during the year with revenue growing 17.5% year-on-year to INR 498 crores. We continue to maintain our leadership in this segment with a 59% market share, issuing more than 4.7 crore PAN cards during FY '26 with increasing digitization and formalization of the economy SA remains a foundational enabler for financial inclusion, compliance and access to formal financial services. Protean continues to play a pivotal role in this ecosystem by powering secure, scalable and population scale tax identity infrastructure for millions of citizens across the country. Our CRA service business continues to show resilient growth with FY '26 revenue growing by 7.5% to INR 304 crores. The broader pension ecosystem in India is witnessing rapid expansion led by regulatory reforms, increasing awareness and rising financial inclusion. There is an encouraging 13% growth in subscribers added during the year with more than 1.5 crores new CRA subscribers, capturing 96% of incremental subscriber additions during the year. We also onboarded more than 3,000 corporates during FY '26, which is the highest ever annual addition for the company. These numbers reinforce the scale, trust and operating strength of our platform. During the year, PFRDA introduced several progressive reforms aimed at improving pension inclusion and accessibility. Initiatives such as NPS franchise are expected to significantly improve participation from India's informal sector, which constitutes nearly 90% of total workforce. Simplified onboarding, increased flexibility in withdrawals and investment and broader accessibility are expected to accelerate long-term pension adoption across the country. Coming to Identity Services segment, revenue for FY '26 stood at INR 92 crores. We continue to see volume growth across most foundational ID products, and we remain optimistic on the long-term opportunity driven by Digital India initiative, rising digital authentication requirements. Our focus continues to remain on value-added solutions like eSignPro, [indiscernible] with Protean and KYC search and report solutions. Our new businesses continued to gain traction during FY '26 with revenue from the segment increasing nearly 3x year-on-year to INR 103 crores. The company continued to strengthen its presence across emerging digital public infrastructure opportunities with strategic RFP projects like [indiscernible] and [indiscernible]. Further, UIDAI's [indiscernible] mandate is progressing well and successful rollout of [indiscernible] across 20 states and union territories. Revenue generation from these centers has commenced with early performance in line with expectations. From a financial standpoint, our balance sheet remains extremely strong with healthy cash reserves and 0 debt, giving us the flexibility to continue investing in innovation, platform expansion and new growth opportunities. As we move into FY '27, our strategic priorities remain clear: deepening relationships, deepening leadership in core API ecosystems, expanding pension and social security participation, scaling enterprise and platform-led services, driving operating leverage while continuing strategic investments and taking India stack global. As we enter the next phase of growth, I am also delighted to inform that Mr. [indiscernible] will join us as the Managing Director and CEO of Protean with effect from 1st June 2026. With his extensive experience across banking, digital transformation and working with fintech ecosystem, we believe Protean is well positioned to further strengthen its leadership in India's evolving digital economy. As we conclude FY '26, we remain optimistic about the business opportunity ahead for the company backed by strong fundamentals, deep domain expertise and a growing portfolio of transformative initiatives. I would like to sincerely thank our team for their dedication and our investors for their continued trust and support. Thank you. And with that, I would now like to hand over to our CFO, Mr. Sandeep Mantri, to discuss the financials. Thank you.

Thank you, [ Easwaran ]. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. As artificial intelligence increasingly reshape the global technology landscape, the role of digital public infrastructure platform is expected to evolve from being transaction processing systems to becoming more intelligent, interoperable and predictive digital ecosystem. AI-led automation, analytics and digital intelligence are expected to significantly enhance citizen service delivery, fraud detection, personalization and operational efficiency across large-scale public platform. This evaluation aligns strongly with Protean long-term strategic positioning as a trusted digital public infrastructure company, managing population scale platform across taxation, pension, identity and other citizen services. With this, now let me take you through the financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31st March 2026. So first, I'll talk about quarter and then I'll go to the yearly numbers. So this quarter, we have closed revenue at INR 308 crores, which is a growth of 38% Y-o-Y as compared to INR 222 crores in same quarter last year. This was primarily driven by healthy performance across our core businesses, along with increasing momentum in new and emerging business segment. Revenue for this quarter also include INR 44 crores on account of storage charges. EBITDA. If you talk about EBITDA, EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 53 crores, reflecting a robust growth of 55% Y-o-Y, supported by improved operating leverage and higher operational efficiencies. Consequently, EBITDA margin expanded by 20 basis points to 16.5% in this quarter from 14.4% in the corresponding quarter of last year. Adjusted -- we talk about adjusted profit after tax. The adjusted profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 31 crores, marking a growth of 53% Y-o-Y with PAT margin of 9.6%. The adjusted PAT include a onetime statutory impact of INR 75 lakhs for the quarter relating to implementation of new labor code. Coming to the annual performance, FY '26 performance, this year has been a strong year for Prot from both a growth and profitability standpoint. As rightly said Easwaran, during the year, the company delivered consolidated revenue from operation of INR 998 crores, which is the highest in the history of the company, registering a healthy growth of 19% Y-o-Y. EBITDA for FY '26 stood at INR 188 crores as against INR 149 crores in FY '25, which reflects a robust growth of 27% on a Y-o-Y basis. Also EBITDA margin expanded by 125 basis points to 17.6%, driven by improved operational leverage. Adjusted profit after tax for FY '26 stood at INR 105 crores despite continued investment towards technology capabilities, execution readiness for large-scale mandates and expansion of our digital public infrastructure platforms. Trade margin remained healthy at 9.8% during the year. From a cost perspective, we continue to maintain a disciplined approach while simultaneously investing for future growth and sustainability. Employee benefit expenses, which is part of cost increased during the year primarily on account of capability building, strategic hiring and strengthening execution team for large-scale projects. Other expenses also saw calibrated increases linked to infrastructure expansion, technology investment and project execution. We delivered an earnings per share of INR 24.8 for FY '26, up 8.6% on a Y-o-Y basis, and the Board has recommended a final dividend of 100%, which means 10 per share and approximately 40% payout on a PAT, reflecting our commitment to sharing profits -- sharing wealth and profits with shareholders. Key project win we talked about -- we talked about earlier also include [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] mandate from UI and a strategic mandate to build an AI-powered digital agriculture platform for Ethiopia. The total outstanding order book as on date stood at more than INR 1,500 crores. During the year, we acquired 4.95% strategic stake in NHCL Payment Bank with an investment of INR 30.2 crores. This gives us an opportunity to collaborate closely with them in co-creating replicable certified digital banking technology, which can further be deployed across BFSI industry. Our business model continued to remain asset-light and cash generative. During FY '26, the company continued to generate healthy operating cash flow, supported by stable collection and working capital management. From a balance sheet standpoint, we remain in a strong financial position. As on March 31, 2026, the company had cash equivalent and marketable security of more than INR 850 crores and continue to remain completely debt-free. This provides us significant flexibility to pursue growth opportunity, invest in technology and innovation and maintain long-term financial resilience. As we move into FY '27, while we remain cautious with the ongoing war situation affecting economies and supply chain across the world, our focus largely will remain on improving operating leverage, scaling product-led and RFP businesses. With a strong balance sheet, robust cash position, improving business mix and a good order pipeline, we believe that the company remains well positioned for a long-term sustainable growth. With that, I conclude my remarks and request the moderator to open the floor for questions.

[Operator Instructions] [indiscernible] first question from the line of Rohan from Equirus Securities.

Sir, this INR 44 crores that you have received on storage charges, just want to recheck this is the same for which we have provided earlier? Or is there some other thing for which we have received this storage charge? Speaker 3

not the one which we have provided earlier. Whatever we have provided earlier is already collected. And last year only, we did some reversal of receivable provision. So this is a new income, which is towards storage charges as per contract with the contract department.

So this run rate will continue on an annual basis, INR 44 crores?

No, this is for a few years. This will not be the run rate for next year. Next year will be a bit lower than this. This is like for 2.5, 3 years.

Sure. Sir, second, for the full year, we have done roughly INR 12 crores -- INR 110 crores to INR 112 crores of EBITDA if we exclude the other income. So if you can help me split that EBITDA between, say, the tax services business, the CRA business and...

Rohan, you are aware that we only declare one segment. And because of these reasons, I would not be able to provide you EBITDA business-wise. But having said that, you can definitely touch base with our Investor Relations team, and they can guide you how we model these numbers.

Sure. And on the employee base, like with the other Sevahindra going live and maybe more [indiscernible] that you'll add, how should one think on the employee cost for FY '27.

So employee cost for '27 will increase because we'll have to deploy our employees in 190 center across the country. So there will be about -- for each center, there is a minimum contractual requirement depending on the type of center. So the employee cost will definitely -- is definitely going to increase. But having said that, this is part of project revenue and project cost. So you have to -- when you are modeling your business model for this business, you have to model in a way that it gives you -- basically, these are direct costs for running the operations.

Right. But ballpark, like what kind of an increase can we expect on employee cost, around INR 65 crores to INR 70 crores of an incremental cost once all the centers go live, would that be a fair assumption?

Yes. It would be difficult to give numbers on this. But what I can say is we will add about 2,000-odd employees for the center. And these are mostly entry-level jobs or those kind of people. So you can roughly calculate those numbers.

Sure, sure. And just wanted an update on PA 2.0, like how are we positioned there in terms of our role? And any further clarity on the impact?

So I think [indiscernible], we stand where we were earlier. I mean there is no change as such. Our strength remain very clear, whatever we said in future past remains true for future as well. And we are working with the department, how will distribution. We believe that distribution will remain and therefore, how will distribution prevail in the next 1.5 years, we'll need to see. I don't think I think we have an update beyond that. [indiscernible], you may want to add that?

We believe that model for our kind of demographics and geographies stand a very good chance to keep continuing. This is what during last quarter also, the assessment that we had, and we continue to believe the same.

Sure. So [indiscernible] is yet to go live from IT department perspective, right?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Okay. Got it. And sir, lastly Sorry, you're saying Yes. Sir, lastly, on the support and Sorry, sir, you were adding something you have.

No, no. I just responded to your question.

Sure. And sir, support and maintenance cost of INR 160-odd crores, like which businesses are driving most part of this?

Which one you're talking about?

Support and maintenance cost, INR 160 crores.

System and maintenance -- so these costs are primarily -- the implementations are basically for project-led businesses and the system maintenance and support is for all the businesses, which is historically remains at some level, right? So any addition is primarily because of the project-led businesses, which is some of those projects.

We'll take our next question from the line of Bajrang from Sunidhi Securities.

Congrats for strong set of numbers. So sir, my first question pertains to rollout of this [indiscernible]. What percentage we have completed by the end of Q4 FY '26? And how do we see the rollout in FY '27, both in terms of percentage completion and the full revenue rollout wise? What revenue that we booked in Q4 FY '26? And how do we see this rollout in FY '27 also? That will be my first question, sir.

Okay. Let me tell you [indiscernible] is as per the RFP terms, it is divided into a few phases, Phase I, Phase II and Phase [indiscernible]. 34 was supposed to be opened in the Phase 1 and further in various stages. And currently, as of now, 44arhevandas are operational, which is around 23% of the total, out of [indiscernible] are operational. And we have started seeing the revenue streams in FY '26.

I mean we are not disclosing the revenue for a particular project. But having said that, we have already started monetizing the 34arevails, which were live before March 31. As of today, we have about 44. Our plan is to go live with all 189asevails by September or October.

By September, October of FY '27, right? '26 only? Okay. And sir, once the full rollout happens...

So that's what I'm saying full scale revenue you will see sometime after 3 or 4 months from maybe in February, March.

Okay. So maybe third quarter will be the first quarter where -- after full rollout, we will see the full revenue potential.

You will see revenue for the old A centers coming in and fourth quarter, we should see more...

Okay. And sir, what will be -- because roughly with this 5-year contract, that number year-wise works out to close to INR 200 crores. So that will be the right assumption to assume once the rollout happens, the full rollout happens.

This is what as per bid estimate while we have to see how volumes in the sector.

Okay. Got it. And sir, any -- and any guidance on the working capital cycle, which will be involved in this?

This is like a managed service project. So there is not any working capital gap in this project, 30 or 60 days, you get your money...

And sir, can we get some odd once the full rollout happens close to 20% sort of operating margin? Would that be a right assumption?

I would not be able to disclose the margin for each project because we are governed under confidential clauses with the government contract and I would not...

Sir, broadly, if you see the margin trajectory going forward, will that be -- like last year, we have done close to, let's say, 12-odd percent, excluding other income. So how do you see that margin playing out in '27 and '28 on a ballpark basis because this year, our revenues are definitely going to be high because of the and...

I will not give a 1 year or 1 quarter or 2 quarter perspective. But having said that, we said last earnings call also and prior to that also that our initiative is to improve margin with each passing year. A lot of things play in margin expansion. Of course, our whole endeavor is to automate more and more use technology, deploy technology in every area of activities, the operations we are and therefore, high high margin with each passing quarter. But guidance would be guidance on margins remains the same like what we said in the last few quarters. We are -- and we endeavor to improve our margins by significant in next 2, 3...

Got it. And sir, [indiscernible], how do you see traction -- because now [indiscernible] is also talking about a lot. So how do you see the traction on the ground and building other revenue streams in that segment? What is your sense how this is -- as per your expectation, the rollout or the success? If you could guide something on that will be really helpful.

The [indiscernible] project with the guidance from the regulator and also the team looks to be very positive. It is now being built to cater to some very interesting areas on the insurance, especially on the health side and the motor side, the way it is going to come out. It's also expected to increase the insurance penetration within the country. That's one of the key mandates and make it affordable. Therefore, we believe that beyond the project also, there are some adjacencies that in due course would open up, which we are exploring.

Okay. So so far, this versus the delivery. So I'm just trying to sense account in terms of acceptance in the market or the footfalls that are coming on that. So something if you could cite on that count will be really appreciated.

[indiscernible] is a work in progress. Also given, like I said, the guidances that are coming from the Himmersugam team from the entire industry perspective, it's a buildup right now. That platform is in the WIP stage. And when we would see the full...

Next question is from the line of Shah from [indiscernible].

I got a couple of questions. Firstly, sir, processing charges, if you look at as a percentage of the revenue, it comes to 35% for this particular year of quarters, it has gone to 32% as well, 36% as well. So I mean, what percentage can we assume it to be a sustainable number because it has drastically come down in the last 1 year. Secondly, my second question is, how much of the revenues from and have you booked in this particular year? And what can one estimate for FY '27. And secondly, sir, how much of the revenue has come from organically card issuances? I mean ex of your onetime the bank, which has come from 1st of April, where the bank and the other name has to be the same. So ex of that, what organic growth has come -- so these are my questions.

Okay. So first question was on processing charges. How do we see processing charges from here? This quarter, it was 35.1%. This year, it was 35% and 40% was last year. I guess processing charges will over in these ranges only between 35% to 38%. It depends on what kind of transactions we are doing. If it is online transaction, your processing charges goes down. If it is assisted online, it goes up further, goes up from online. And if it is completely physical, processing charges are heavy. But we have seen the same that assisted online is the one which is more prevalent. And therefore, the processing charges, you should assume in the same range, which is 35% to 38%. Your second question, I hope that answers your question, right? Your second question was on revenue from project services, right, which is [indiscernible] or other projects. You are aware that we are not giving project-wise revenues for the project -- turnkey project, which we are executing. Having said that, you may connect with our Investor Relations and get some ideas about how these revenues are being booked and accordingly model some of these numbers. Your third question was on how -- what is the organic kind of business in PAC, which is outside of Aadhar Pen linkage. I don't think we have these numbers. What number we have is that the total PCA issues, but how much of it is because of Aadhar Pen linkage, we would not know because those kind of analytics are not available. app. according to us, this whole thing is organic. There is nothing which is inorganic in this I hope this answers all your questions, right? These were the 3 questions.

Yes. Just to come up on the thing. So I mean Q4 would be the one that I can assume for Q1 FY '27

No, I don't think we will be able to assume on this oar Pain linkage, how much is because of other pain linkage and how much is because of other pain linkage is one of the event, which triggers the pain card issuance in the country, but I don't think we will be able to assume what number we can allocate to each of these activities. There are many triggers which happens on and every time. What we will get is the total number of [ PAN ] card issuance in the country.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible].

My first question is on Bu we expect the platform to go live? And whenever we go live, do we expect some significant revenue in that quarter because of a milestone getting hit...

The mandate on which the [indiscernible] team is working is they have the platform going live and also the products going live. So like I said, the health and the motor, these are 2 significant product lines on the insurance that they have been mandated to do that. The mandate from a regulator for that to happen is within the next 3 to 4 months that needs to be done or prior to that. So this is also in the domain of [indiscernible] would want to kind of communicate it back to the regulator and to the market. So this is all that we could possibly share on this call.

And your second part of the question was on the revenue, right? So the turnkey project, while milestone is for billings, but the revenues are accounted based on estimated effort to margin basis. So revenue will get recognized whenever we are putting effort into this project is what will it take to completely go live the project. So therefore, we just estimate the effort and cost and we apply a markup to recognize revenue every quarter. Having said that, milestone is only a billing thing.

And on this project, there will be also some recurring revenue, right, in terms of maintenance, et cetera, going forward once that go live?

Yes. Once the go-live happens, there will be a recurring revenue because these are like 5, 6 or 7-year projects, whether it is [indiscernible] projects. So first 2 years normally are the implementation year. And then next 3, 4, 5 years are basically maintaining or providing support to run this project.

Right, sir. And my last question is on the cash. We have a significant amount of cash in balance sheet. How do we plan to utilize or deploy the cash?

So one, as you have heard that we will pay dividend on our share capital, which is about INR 44-odd crores. Then we are -- we will need money for working capital. And at the same time, we will need to invest in platforms to be future ready and sustainable. This is what I talked about in my speech as well. So these are the 3 or 4 areas where we will need money, and we will spend money to grow the business in the future.

We'll take our next question from the line of [indiscernible] an individual investor.

Congrats for the wonderful results. just couple of questions. First, how do you see your international business going on? If you can just throw some light on what are the quick wins in terms of RFP...

Yes. International business, as we have already declared in our speech by the CFO, there are certain wins which have already got on the agri business in Ethiopia and those revenues will start flowing in. And other parts are all going on. There are a lot of engagements happening in various places across Africa currently, where we are looking at similar kind of digital public infrastructure kind of deals where we can get into. So these are all in various stages of discussions. And as and when it materializes, we'll definitely come out and inform you. Having said given the current geopolitical situation happening around the Middle East and some part of the world, there has been a slight slowdown, which we have seen in this month, but we hope that we will -- this will start picking up and we start getting more traction.

But sir, how do you see your revenue growth coming from these businesses particularly? Any idea on future prospect or do you think?

We are very optimistic about our international businesses for sure. But a word of caution because right now, the decision-making in some of these countries is slow because of the war situation or supply chain situation is going on. But we are very optimistic about our -- one of our strategies to get this India stake to global. That is our strategy. And we will continue to work towards that. And we think that international business will be one of the significant contributor to our revenue in time to come. It may not be in...

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] from [indiscernible].

Firstly, congratulations on a great set of results, sir. Sir, I just wanted to ask regarding the storage charges that we had in Q4. I joined the call a bit late, sorry if it's a repeated question. So this is -- I think I heard that this is an annual charge, it's a multiyear charge, but we've taken the revenue in Q4 only. So can you just explain like is this something that we can expect year-on-year to come at this rate? Or how would it play sir?

Yes. So this is like -- because this has to be accepted by income tax department, then only we book these revenues. Otherwise, there is always flexibility. So when income tax department except these storage charges depending on whatever data or whatever document that we will need for the storage document. This is that we recognize our revenue. Having said that, I think we will have yearly revenues coming out of these storage for next few years.

So sir, in terms of nature of this service, so this is something that we are charging on past services? Or is this something that in the future? Because from what I understand.

We are charging on storing the document for those income tax processing documents, which we are restoring that we are charging these transaction fees.

This INR 44 crores is for document storage is done in from the last full year, right? So a similar quantum can be expected every year, right, plus/minus, but whatever in terms of...

Not similar. I would not say similar because this INR 44 crores is for 2 or 3 years. As I said, because of collect, we recognize revenue only on the basis [indiscernible]

Okay. So it's something for past 2 or 3 years. Okay. Got it, sir. And sir, just regards to our [indiscernible] to understand, I think we expect by Q4 to completely have all the centers running. But the costs like the employee cost, infra, some cost, we'll start having it before only, right? So this will dampen our margins a bit going forward? Like is that a fair assumption? Not I'm saying for the full -- not going in the long term, but for this year because we'll have to start building up the full capabilities, right, and hiring people. So will that affect the margins in the meantime because the revenues will not flow when the cost will start?

Yes. This will be a timing mismatch, I would say, wherein we will be in building phase as well, and we will be in revenue phase for some centers. So there will be definitely a timing mismatch to that extent, the margin will be affected.

Okay. So in the first 2, 3 years, can we expect for the first 2, 3 quarters of this financial year, we can expect some kind of a margin dip compared to our FY '26 numbers, sir?

So I would not be able to comment on this right now because we are yet to test water for many of these centers. And maybe in next 1 or 2 quarters, we would be able to comment what kind of volume we will take. Sometimes it happens that from day 1, you have queues standing outside, sometimes it may take a month or so. So it depends. I mean it will be very difficult for me to give any numbers right now to what will be this -- how long this timing match will be, whether it will be 1 month, 2 months, 1 day longer, I don't know.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] from Credential Investments. Can you use your handset mode, please?

Sir, this is regarding your CRA business. Yes. I think the PDA has revised charges for the -- in terms of certain accounts. you maintain the AMC charges and all that? And does it benefit us? Or how does it go through? And also the second question is in terms of the data how has been the growth because since last few years, we have launched all this? If you can answer the 2 questions to us.

So CRA, do you want to answer -- so CRA, the charges were revised in last quarter. And the whole intent of PFR is to really grow this pension ecosystem in the country. They want to grow from this level to a very significant level in the next 3 to 5 years. And therefore, the charges are aligned with best practices in the industry. There are 2 or 3 kind of charges. One is AUM linked for all the private corporate sector. And for government, there's a fixed fee and for [indiscernible] also there is a fixed fee, right? So these were the 3 kind of charge structure which are prevailing in CRA. Having said that, in long run, I think this will help the industry because this will help the company also because this AMC-based charges system will really help in once the AMC will always grow and therefore, the revenues also will grow to that extent. And PFD has a clear basically clear mention that they want to grow NPS or pension ecosystem in the country. This is a clear...

How does it help in terms of margin, sir, going forward? Because I think it's more of a dynamic pricing that has come into this entire MO addition that help the CRA also.

I think in long term, it is -- in short run, we see some dip in margins. But in long run, I think it will help industry and company because the charges become dynamic with your MC growing, your subscriber base growing, you will get more and more revenue, right? So in 1 or 2 quarters, you will see revenue margins start picking up significantly from here for the private sector.

Okay. So it will be margin accretive to us. Is it safe to assume compared to what you're getting in the past 2, 3 years?

In short term, no. In long run, yes.

Okay. Okay. And about your data business.

Data, you want to talk about? Yes. So the outlook on the data stack looks to be very positive. On the eSignPro product, we are seeing now a very good traction in funnel and also the platforms on the RISE and KYC reporting solutions. So that we are seeing a very healthy traction in multiple organizations and multiple segments. So that looks to be a very positive area for us. Speaker 9

can quantify the growth will be much better because I understand the growth is good, but can you quantify how it has been since the time of the launch?

So when we are talking about [indiscernible] So when we're talking about data, we see a very good traction in terms of number of customers, number of transactions like transactions in rise with protein are growing significantly. Transactions in eSign have started and are growing with each quarter with each passing day. So at least in next 2, 3 quarters, we see a very good amount of revenue should come from these data products, which is either eSign Pro or with Protean or Protean or some of those new initiatives.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] from [indiscernible].

I believe it was INR 100 crores kind of a project over 2 months. So I just wanted to understand as we -- how the revenue recognition works have we already recognized some revenues from it or maybe it's going to come in going ahead? I mean I believe you pointed out that 2 years of implementation and then. So could you just help me understand whether the revenues are yet to come in or it's an existing revenue? No. So some minimal revenues, I mean insignificant revenues are accounted for in this project, but that is not a significant one. I think the implementation revenue will start from this year. Maybe in this year, we will see a significant amount of revenue coming from implementation out of this project. And once implementation is stopped, then the revenue...

Okay. And the INR 10 crores is implement plus the entire thing...

INR 10 crores is the revenue which is implementation and support for, I think, 4 or 5 years, I guess.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] from [indiscernible].

Sir, my question is on the storage charges. We have booked INR 44 crores. And if it is assuming it is for 3 years, then the pro rata would be, say, INR 15 crores a year or so. My question is more on the cost. Like suppose you have recognized INR 45 crores in this quarter. Is there no associated cost and -- I mean, because the cost could have been booked in the earlier quarters? Or was the cost deferred and then the cost has been matched for this quarter?

A back-to-back arrangement, we collect, we pay. So there will be a matching of revenue and cost. So in this quarter, if you see our processing charges have increased because of -- one of the reason -- primary reason is because of the cost on storage.

Next question is from the line of [ Rohan ] from Equirus Securities.

Sir, just wanted a clarification on the tax rate. Our tax rate is lower than 25%. So what is helping us there?

So tax rate is a consolidated tax rate wherein you have Dubai entity, then another account aggregator, then there is Info and then [indiscernible] These are the 4 primary entities. So Dubai, if the tax rate is low, it will definitely be advantageous for [indiscernible] to have a lower. On an overall basis, have a lower tax rate. So while tax legal tax rate is 25.17%, but eventually, you have to -- in consolidated books, you have to combine all these entities. So it will be -- so if you see historically also, we were in 22%, 23% range. We continue to remain in that range because of...

But are we having any meaningful revenues on the Dubai entry right now?

Not meaningful, but even insignificant amount of profit will change the tax rate.

We'll take our next question from the line of [indiscernible] an individual investor.

Just wanted some more clarity on the other revenue business line items like [indiscernible] out optimistic on international business. But what about other revenue line items? How do you see the revenue mix and the business growth across these revenue line items?

See, these other revenues, other are the new businesses which we are talking, right, every time. And as we guided in last many calls, our aim or ambition remains -- aspiration remains that these revenue should constitute about 25% of our total revenue in 2 to 3 years, right? And this is what we are moving towards. If you see last year, our other revenue. I mean, the new segment revenue was 4% or 3%, I don't know, but it is now about 10%. So there is a significant increase in the contribution from the new businesses, which is what we are working towards, and we are moving in the right direction. It will come from international business, it will come from data assets. It will come from cloud offering. It will come from OD or the project businesses basically.

So this is from less than 3% to 10% plus. This is 3x of growth that we had...

Just one more question, sir. So how typically your direct cost, which has been attributable to across businesses? Any major revenue which includes your direct cost particularly?

Normal direct cost is [indiscernible] I'm saying Processing cost will be in CR, processing cost will be in paint major.

Any percentage is I just wanted to understand how it has been allocated between these 2 business, CRA pension business?

So I would not be able to guide you on that, but mostly these are platform businesses. So whether it is pain or whether it is CI, both are platform businesses. So both are having similar nature. In Pain, though we have some physical cost, which is the distribution commission or page charges or some of those elements, which drives this processing cost. In the CRA, we'll have lesser processing charges because there it is not like distribution or page every time. It is only sometime in some cases where customer has not chosen the green option, we have to dispatch annual statement of account.

I permit my last question. As I can see the employee cost is largely related to the business. But given that P 2.0 version, do you see -- like I understand due to business coming in and your employee cost would increase, but any impact due to PA 2.0 version? Would it decrease due to [indiscernible]?

So right now, I don't think we have any impact of PA 2.0. As of today, I think it will continue. Pain business will continue. This is what we believe in. I will continue. This is what we believe in. We'll have to wait and watch after 12, 15, 18 months, we need to see how distribution pans out in new pain ecosystem, then we need to figure out.

Next question is from the line of [indiscernible] Shah from [indiscernible]

Yes. So just one data-related question. I was looking at the PPD in the CRA services, we mentioned the [indiscernible] enrollment has crossed INR 9 crores in April '26. So I mean, when I check when I went through the APY subscriber base from the website itself, it shows INR 7.5 crores. So am I missing something?

So some of the -- so the enrollment that we are speaking about. So PFD enrolls people under the APY scheme. But there are some accounts which becomes dormant or inactive. So when we take our count, what we show in our investor deck, it is minus the deletions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Pushpa Mani for closing comments. Over to you.

Thanks, everyone, for all your support in joining us. If any queries would have left unanswered, please reach out to us. We'll be very happy to answer. Thank you so much.

Thank you. On behalf of Go India Advisors LLP, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.