MCA waives late fee for 15 days as it migrates to new statutory filing system

girish.p@livemint.com

The corporate affairs ministry on Monday started shifting a major part of the corporate reporting process to the revamped compliance portal, MCA21, and gave businesses more time to file key statutory documents without additional charges.

As part of the move, 45 statutory forms will be made available on the MCA21 portal by January 22, out of which 10 forms related to incorporation of companies were uploaded on Monday. The updated forms have tighter security and validation features.

According to an order published on the ministry’s website, all 45 forms will not be available on the old portal till the migration is completed on January 22. Businesses have been given an additional 15 days to file applications without additional fees if their due date falls during this period.

The portal replaces PDF format forms with web-based forms, which utilize IT tools for better user experience and ensure more efficient regulatory monitoring of businesses. This allows authorities to detect financial stress, as well as governance lapses in companies at an early stage.

The ministry said the time limit for entities reporting appointment or resignation of directors, request for Director Identification Number, declaration in commencement of business, conversion of public company to private and vice-versa has been reduced to 15 days without any additional cost. will be extended till Change in share capital.

The forms made available on Monday in the new system include applications for name of a firm, change of name, and application for incorporation of a company, and requests for registrations such as goods and services tax and professional tax, employees’ state insurance Plan and include. Employees Provident Fund.

Experts say the current system is built on one-factor authentication and information is easy to access. “The new system is more focused and built with two-factor authentication, which seeks to fix accountability of professionals and personnel involved in incorporation as well as other filings,” said Amit Maheshwari, tax partner, AKM Global, a tax & Counsel firm, said.

Experts welcomed the change to a more sophisticated filing system and said initial teething problems faced by filers would be resolved by relaxing the timelines and through a real-time redressal mechanism.

Hemanth Krishna, partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sreedharan Attorneys, said there could be some initial hiccups. He added that users may experience problems with sign-up, or sudden time-outs, payment gateway errors, and downloading forms after filling or submitting them. “Considering how important forms are for ‘ease of doing business’, the Ministry would do well to lend a keen ear to the users once the forms are uploaded on the MCA21 portal so that the anomalies are rectified expeditiously.”