The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) will shortly discontinue the version 2.0 (V2) of the MCA21 portal, a platform used by companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to make statutory filings, incorporation and closure of companies.
In a notification, MCA said that it is launching a final set of 38 company forms, including 13 annual filing forms, 6 audit/cost audit forms on July 14. This launch will effectively shift the entire company filing process from V2 to the version 3.0 (V3) of the MCA portal, rendering V2 obsolete.
To facilitate implementation of these forms in V3, the MCA has issued a set of guidelines for the stakeholders. To begin with, the ministry said that company e-filings on V2 will be disabled from June 18 this year. The notification also said that stakeholders are advised to ensure that no service request numbers (SRNs) are under pending payment or resubmission status.
“Stakeholders are requested to check the SRNs that are currently pending, especially related to investor details and subsidiary details, and upload the details by using services available on MCA portal,” the notification said
Further, the offline payments in V2 using “pay later” option will be stopped from June 8. Therefore, the ministry has advised the companies to make payments for these forms in V2 through online mode only.
In view of the upcoming launch, the V3 will not be available from July 9 to 13. “Accordingly stakeholders are advised to plan and file current V3 forms before July 9 as there will be no waiver of fees or extension of resubmission period,” the ministry said.
The ministry has been gradually shifting the services of MCA21 from older V2 to V3, which was introduced in FY22.
The V3 version is superior to its predecessor as it offers additional features like e-scrunity, e-adjudication, e-consultation, and compliance management.
Features like e-adjudication and e-consultation on V3 are targeted to improve stakeholders’ experiences, streamline the legal procedures and move towards a more business-friendly environment.
In addition, the V3 allows forms to be filled directly online as against the V2 where forms need to be downloaded, filled and then uploaded on the portal.
Experts said that LLP-related solutions have already been shifted from V2 to V3 some time ago.
To access V3 services, the ministry has advised stakeholders to create fresh user ID or upgrade existing V2 ID or merge V2 ID in V3 system under “business user” category.
Launched in 2006, the MCA21 portal aims to automate the processes pertaining to the legal requirements and compliances under the Companies Act, 2013 and the LLP Act 2008.