Comments
Close on the heels of introducing a ‘fresh start scheme’, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has given a one-time opportunity for ‘ACTIVE non-compliant’ companies to become compliant without forking out any fees.
This facility — which comes against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic — will be available between April 1 and September 30, without a filing fee of ₹10,000, according to the MCA.
It may be recalled that companies that did not file e-form ACTIVE were categorised by MCA as ‘ACTIVE non-compliant companies’. ‘e-form ACTIVE’ stands for Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification. MCA had made directors responsible for filing of ‘e-form ACTIVE’ to set the compliance record straight.
Weeding out shell firms
MCA’s main objective behind the introduction of e-form ACTIVE was to weed out ‘shell companies’, which allegedly were used as conduits for illicit fund flows. Any company marked as ‘ACTIVE compliant’ means that it has completed all the regulatory formalities.
Meanwhile, the MCA has also given this regularisation opportunity to those Director Identification Number (DIN) holders who are marked as ‘deactivated’ due to non-filing of DIR-3 KYC/DIR-3-KYC-web forms. This can now be filed between April 1 and September 30 without payment of ₹5,000 as fee, MCA has said.
Harish Kumar, Partner, L&L Partner, said: “Significantly, unlike other filings where additional fees is calculated on proportionate basis depending of number of days of delay, in case of DIR-3 KYC and ACTIVE form, a flat ₹5000/₹10,000 is to be paid, even if it is delayed by a single day. Thus, this one-time opportunity of filing these forms, without payment of additional fees, would certainly bring financial relief to corporate sector, particularly the small players”.
Aseem Chawla, Managing Partner, ASC Legal, a law firm, said that the Fresh Start scheme is again a respite in midst of preventive Covid-19 lockdown. “A welcome feature is immunity from presecution in respect of belated documentation filing which is a step progressing towards de-criminalisation of violations and doing away with the associated hardship. Also a defaulting company is permitted to file belated document which were due for filing on any date”, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.