Incorporation of companies and filing of statutory documents under the Companies Act is set to be interactive with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs preparing a new version of its compliance platform for companies in a couple of months.
The new ‘company module’ in the ministry’s compliance portal will have chatbots to assist in filing and web forms instead of Portable Document Format (PDF) forms and will deploy artificial intelligence to guide the user through the filing process, a Person who is familiar with the project said. The aim is to make the portal more responsive and easier to do business, especially for small businesses that do not have the resources to hire professionals for compliance. The ministry, which recently launched a similar module for limited liability partnerships (LLPs), expects the new company module to be fully operational in the next two months.
A more responsive and interactive technology interface with regulatory authorities – Registrars of Companies (ROCs), Regional Directors and Official Liquidators – will be extremely useful for businesses and professionals, as there are over 1.4 million active companies on the ministry’s MCA 21 portal for statutory compliance. makes use of. According to official data, in FY21, over 1.2 million annual returns were filed and over 3.1 million company records were viewed online. The number of companies incorporated is also increasing and about 12,000-14,000 new companies are being formed every month.
“With further improvements in ease of doing business, compliance will require less time and resources, helping entrepreneurs focus on their core operations,” said a second person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new filing system will also affect the government’s administration of the regulatory framework under the Companies Act, given that the new module will use artificial intelligence and data analysis to spot trends in the corporate sector, which may attract the attention of regulators or policy makers. The ministry earlier this month sought bids from private researchers to analyze its database to shed light on corporate behavior in key areas such as the extent of leverage and whether public funds were used for alleged purposes. Is.
The ministry has already linked its technology platform with other departments such as labor and employment and revenue and some state governments and select banks to offer a range of services including issuance of Permanent Account Number (PAN), Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number Is. TAN), and Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) registration and profession tax registration.
The ministry is in the process of introducing a centralized facility to process applications from companies for voluntary closure, which is currently being handled by RoCs in various states, said the second person cited above. This will make voluntary exits quicker for businesses.