With glitches continuing to pose a challenge on the updated portal for company filings, stakeholders are hoping for a further relaxation in additional fees for online filing as well as physical filing of certain forms. The current set of relief measures announced by the ministry of corporate affairs is set to end after today (March 31).
To this end, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has written to the corporate affairs ministry that the current set of relaxations should be extended till June 30 this year. These include relaxation in the levy of additional fee for filing of 45 forms, which are due for filing between February 7 and June 30, and allowing filing of six forms till June 30.
“In this regard, we wish to submit that as informed by professionals the technical glitches are still persisting and they are still not able to file the Forms as required under the Companies Act, 2013,” ICSI president Manish Gupta said in the letter to MCA secretary Manoj Govil.
Common glitches such as non-generation of OTPs for foreign nationals, delays in getting certification of incorporation and problems in filing of forms continue to plague users, the ICSI has pointed. Many users also continue to post their problems regarding the portal on social media.
The Version 3 or V3 of the MCA21 portal is an upgraded version with the objective of better service facilities, as well as use of data analytics. Under the transition, the first set of nine company forms were moved to the updated portal on August 31, 2022 and the second set of 56 company forms including 10 incorporation related forms were shifted on January 23 this year. However, the website has been faced with technical snags and users have been unable to file the requisite forms, which has impacted their compliance procedures.
Union finance & corporate affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman had then asked the ministry to form a special team to address public grievances on priority and monitor the problems on a daily basis. The ministry has also been working with the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India as well as technology company LTI Mindtree
As a relief to users, the MCA has permitted physical filing of eight company forms till March 31, 2023 and has also extended the time for the 45 recently-launched forms as well as PAS-03 to March 31 without payment of additional fees.