MCA eases Compliances, Waives Additional Fee on Statutory Forms

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issued circulars providing relaxation in various compliance requirements of the businesses. The MCA provided extra time for conducting board meetings. It also waived late additional fees for filing statutory forms. 

As per the Companies Act, 2013, the interval between two board meetings of a company should not exceed 120 days. The company should conduct a minimum of four board meetings in a year. The MCA extended the time between two board meetings by additional 60 days, i.e. interval between two board meetings should not exceed 180 days, in place of 120 days. Thus, a company can now hold two board meetings in a gap of 180 days. 

The MCA granted relief to companies to file forms reporting the creation or modification of charges on the assets. When the due date of filing Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9 by a company falls after 1 April 2021 and is expired, it can be filed by 31 May 2021. Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9 relate to reporting the registration of creation or modification of charge for debentures and registration of creation or modification of charge other than those related to debentures.

A company that creates a charge on its assets has to register its particulars with the Registrar of Companies. The companies need to register the particulars of the charge with the Registrar within thirty days of its creation. Thus, when a charge is created before 1 April 2021 not yet reported to the Registrar, it can be done by 31 May 2021 without any additional fee.

The MCA also waived the additional fee for late filing of various forms under the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008 and the Companies Act, 2013. The MCA circular stated that the company and LLP could file the statutory forms by 31 July 2021 that are required to be filed between 1 April 2021 and 31 May 2021 without any additional fees. 

Thus, the forms due between 1 April 2021 and 31 May 2021 under the Companies Act, 2013 and the LLP Act, 2008 can be filed by 31 July 2021 by paying the regular fees. The MCA provided these relaxations because of the COVID-19 disruption and restrictions. 

The MCA took these decisions to ease the company and LLP compliances due to the hardships caused during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The MCA received several requests to waive the additional fees on delayed forms due to the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the government in several parts of India.

The MCA examined these requests and took into account the companies’ difficulties due to the resurgence of COVID-19 infections and granted extra time till the end of July to file statutory forms without paying any additional fees. The Finance Ministry has also granted relief for various compliance requirements related to GST, Income Tax and customs duty and agricultural cess on medical supplies.

The relaxations provided by the MCA will provide relief to the companies and LLP. It will help the company and LLP fulfil compliance, especially when the government has imposed restrictions cause of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at mayashree.acharya@cleartax.in