Relief measures by MCA relating to Statutory and Regulatory
compliance in view of COVID-19 outbreak
NO ADDITIONAL FEES
No Additional Fees need to be paid during a Moratorium Period
for pending documents to be filed with MCA
between 1-04-2020 to 30-08-2020
You can click the following video link to watch the video on the subject:
No additional fees shall be for
late filing during a moratorium period from 01st April to 30th September 2020
No additional fee in respect of any document return
statement required to be filed in the
MCA-21 Registry
Documents irrespective of its due date which will not only
reduce the compliance burden including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at
large, but also enable long-standing non-compliant companies/ LLPs
to make a ‘fresh start’;
Interval for convening Board Meetings
have been Relaxed
The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of
the companies within prescribed interval provided in the Companies Act (120
days), 2013, shall be extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters
i.e., till 30th September;
Applicability CARO 2020 will be wef
2020-2021
Applicability of
Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 shall be made applicable from the
financial year 2020-2021 instead of from 2019-2020 notified earlier. This will
significantly ease the burden on companies & their auditors for the year
2019-20.
Attending a Board Meeting by
Independent Directors
As per Schedule 4 to the Companies Act, 2013, Independent
Directors are required to hold at least one meeting without the attendance of
Non-independent directors and members of management. For the year 2019-20, if
the IDs of a company have not been able to hold even one meeting, the same
shall not be viewed as a violation.
Relaxation as regards to Deposit Reserve
Requirement to create a Deposit reserve of 20% of deposits
maturing during the financial year 2020-21 before 30th April 2020 shall be
allowed to be complied with till 30th June 2020.
Relaxation to Debentures Investment
Requirement to invest 15% of debentures maturing during a
particular year in specified instruments before 30th April 2020, may be done so
before 30th June 2020.
Commencement of Business Requirement period
has been extended
Newly incorporated companies are required to file a
declaration for Commencement of Business within 6 months of incorporation. An
additional time of 6 more months shall be allowed.
Non-compliance of minimum residency in India for a period of
at least 182 days by at least one director of every company, under Section 149
of the Companies Act, shall not be treated as a violation.
Minimum threshold for initiation of
Insolvency action under section 9 of IBC from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 Crore now.
Due to the emerging financial distress faced by most
companies on account of the large-scale economic distress caused by COVID 19,
it has been decided to raise the threshold of default under section 4 of the
IBC 2016 to Rs 1 crore (from the existing threshold of Rs 1 lakh). This will by
and large prevent triggering of insolvency proceedings against MSMEs. If the
current situation continues beyond 30th of April 2020, we may consider
suspending section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC 2016 for a period of 6 months so as
to stop companies at large from being forced into insolvency proceedings in
such force majeure causes of default.
MCA Announces Complete Shutdown Of Offices For 21 Days
MCA announces shutdown of all its offices, including its
field offices, statutory and autonomous bodies, for a period of 21 days or
until further orders, starting March 25, 2020, in view of Govt. guidelines for
complete lockdown owing to COVID-19 health hazard; States that the
officers/employees shall continue to work from home and will be available on
telephone and other means of communication: MCA
