In order to save trees and environment by cutting
down the consumption of costly paper habits, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
has taken a “Green Initiative in the Corporate Governance” by allowing paperless
compliances by the companies under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. Gving details of the initiatives to the media persons here
today Shri Avinash Kumar Shrivastav,
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs expressed the hope that
these initiatives will save the time as well as the environment for a better
future. Some of the
important initiatives are as under :
(i) Allowing service of Documents including
Balance Sheets and Auditors report etc through e-mail addresses :
In order to reduce cost of posting and speedy delivery of
documents, service of documents through electronic mode has been permitted
under section 53 of the Companies Act, 1956 in place of service of document under certificate of
posting.
Similarly, to reduce the consumption of papers and speedy
secure delivery, service of copies of
Balance Sheets and Auditors Report etc., to the members of the company as
required under section 219 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been allowed to be
served through electronic mode by capturing their e-mail addresses available
with the depositories or by obtaining directly from the shareholders.
(ii) Participation
by Directors and shareholders in meetings through video conferencing :
to provide larger participation and for curbing the cost borne by the Company,
Directors, and shareholders to attend various meetings under the provisions of
the Companies Act, 1956, participation through video conferencing has been
permitted subject to certain compliances.
(iii) Voting
in General Meeting of Companies through electronic mode : In order to have
secured electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic
processes, Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL) and National Securities Depositories Limited
(NSDL) are being given approval by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to provide
their electronic platform for capturing accurate electronic voting in General
meetings of the company.
(iv) Issue of Digital Certificates by
Registrar of Companies : The
Registrar of Companies has to issue a number of certificates to the companies
and other stakeholders as required under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. In order to cut
timelines and an another step towards “Green Initiative” it has been decided
that all certificates and standard letters issued by the Registrar of Companies
will now be issued electronically under the Digital Signatures of the Registrar
of Companies.
B. Improvements in process in
MCA21 to help stakeholders / corporates
1.
Introduction
of Refund Process
Earlier
there was no process in MCA21 for refund of fees wrongly paid by the
stakeholder while availing various services at MCA 21. Now the Ministry has
introduced process of
refund of statutory fees paid for certain services.
The
refund of MCA21 fees is available in the following cases:
a)
Multiple Payments; b) Incorrect Payments & c) Excess Payment
Refund
process is not applicable for certain services/ eForms
like Public Inspection of documents, Request for Certified Copies, Payment for
transfer deeds, Stamp duty fee (D series SRN), IEPF Payment, STP Forms, DIN eForm, etc.
The
refund form is to be filed within the stipulated time period. Also, there shall
be deduction in the amount to be refunded based on time period within which
refund eForm is filed. The following is the time slab
for filing refund form and the corresponding deduction in refund amount:
|
Time within which refund application is
made
|
Default value for deduction
|
|
0-90
days
|
2.5%
|
|
91-180
days
|
5%
|
|
181-
270 days
|
7.5%
|
|
271-365
days
|
10%
|
|
>365
day
|
25%
|
Filing
of refund form shall not be allowed after expiry of 1095 days of filing of the
original request. For all earlier cases, (i.e. cases filed before introduction
of refund process), the time limit shall be considered from the date on which
the refund process is introduced i.e. from 01/05/2011.
2.
Removal
of Prioritizing by MCA officers
Earlier
while processing a eforms by the MCA
, there was a facility available to officers to mark a work item as
urgent to bypass the First in First Out (FIFO) processing. However, in order to
bring in more transparency, this functionality has been stopped. The work items
will be processed in the order of their filings only.
3.
Automatic
approval for Form 2, Form 3 regarding return of allotment of shares, Form 18
for change of registered office and for 32 for change in directors details to
be processed under STP mode (Straight through processing)
(a)
Form 2 and Form 3 have been made as STP (Straight Through Process) form and are not required to be processed
by RoC.
(b)
Form 18 filed for existing company for change in
registered office where there is no change in State or RoC
has been made as STP form and is not required to be processed by RoC user.
(c)
Similarly Form 32 filed by an existing company for
change in directors has also been made as a STP form.
Now the form is process and
taken on record without intervention of ROC it will save time for approving the
form and immediately available for public inspection.
4.
Mandating
stamping for the state of Jammu and
Kashmir
With
effect from 1st May, 2011, facility has been introduced to pay stamp
duty fee of eForm 1, AOA, MOA and Form 44 for the
state of Jammu and Kashmir
mandatorily in electronic manner through MCA21 system. Now 30 States and UTs
are covered by estamps leaving only 2 States and 2
UTs (Nagaland, Goa, UTs Daman & Diu and Dadar & Nagar Heveli.
5.
Delegation
of power to issue section 25 license to a company from RD to RoC.
Presently,
any company seeking approval for issue of license u/s 25,
makes an application to regional director in eForm
24A. The application is processed and approval/ rejection order is passed by
the concerned regional director.
Now the
power to issue license under section 25 companies has
been delegated to Registrar of Companies by amendment in the relevant
notification. In view of this, all applications for issue of license u/s
25 in e Form
24A shall be henceforth processed by the concerned office of Registrar of
Companies. It will reduce the time taken in incorporation of section 25
companies (Companies not for profit).
6.
Changes
w.r.t filing of Form 8, Form 10 and Form 17 for
Dormant companies
The companies which had
defaulted in filing their annual returns and balance sheets for a continuous
period of three years, have been moved into a separate basket as “Dormant“ companies.
Form 8,
10 (for registration of charges) are not allowed to be filed by a
dormant company. However the same have been allowed in case of charge
modification in favor of ARC or assignee under
SARFASI Act.
Similarly, Form 17 for
satisfaction of charges is also allowed to be filed by Dormant Company
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