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January 08, 2021
In case of Annual filing for the Private Limited Companies what happens is that the Annual Financial Accounts of the Company is submitted to the Registrar of the Companies along with the Annual Return of the Company and the Directors Report. The nature of these annual filing is mandatory and not merely directory. It is important that they are filed annually without a delay or failure otherwise it would attract heavy fines.
The Companies Act of 2013 makes it mandatory for every company that they file their annual accounts as well as annual returns within30 days and 60 days respectively from the conclusion of their Annual General Meeting. Section 129the(3) and 137 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 12 of the Company (Accounts) Rules, 2014 mandates the ROC filing of annual accounts. The annual returns are prescribed under Section 92 of the Companies Act, 2013 that is read with Rule 11 of the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014.
The government of India has provided some relief in case Company law related filing due to the ongoing pandemic. Some of the important changes in the timeframe are:
The government has provided an extension for filing the CRA – 4 which is the form that you need to file for cost audit report under the Companies Act 2013, for the FY 2019-20. Read circular no. 38/2020 | Read circular no. 29/2020
The last date conducting the Annual General Meeting has been extended from September 30 to December 31 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. This does not have a blanket effect. It depends on the due date of Annual General Meeting of each company.
In case of late filing of any document, statement or return that is required by the MCA-21 Registry that is during the Moratorium period i.e. from April 01 to September 20, 2020, no additional fees will be charged for it. It will have two-fold benefit: first that this will decrease the Compliance as well as the financial burden of the Companies and LLPs, and second it will help the Companies and LLPs who have been long non-compliant to make a fresh start.
An extension has been provided for conducting the mandatory Board Meeting. The prescribed interval under the Companies Act was of 120 days, but now an additional delay of 60 days for the next two quarters i.e. September 30th has also been provided.
The Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 that was supposed to be applied from the FY 2019-20 will now be applicable from the FY 2020-21. This will help ease the burden on the Company as well as the Auditor.
In case the Independent Directors have not been able to hold a meeting without the non-independent Directors which is mandatory under the Schedule 4 of the Companies Act, 2013 then it will not be considered as a violation.
The deposit reserve of 20% of the deposits which was supposed to mature before April 30, 2020 can now be extended till June 30, 2020.
The investment of 15% of debentures into a specified instrument that matures in a particular year before April 30 has been extended to June 30, 2020.
Within 6 months from the date of incorporation of Company they have to file a declaration for the Commencement of business. They have given an extended time of 6 more months.
Section 149 of the Companies Act, 2013 makes it mandatory for at least one director to stay in India for a period of at least 182 days. Not following this rule will not be treated as a violation.
Under Section 4 of the IBC 2016 the threshold for default has been raised to Rs. 1 Crore. This will prove most useful to the MSMEs by preventing the risk of going insolvent. If the situation does not change even after April 30, 2020 then Section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC could also be suspended for a period of 6 months in order to protect them for force majeure causes of default.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs will release separate detailed circulars for the same.
Annual e-filing Guidelines
The list of important documents that needs to be filed along with their 2020 dates are as follows:
1. Annual Financial Accounts of the company.
2. Board Meeting Records and Minutes of the meetings.
3. Audit of Accounts of the Company by the Statutory Auditors.
4. Directors Report
5. Annual General Meeting
6. Filing Form AOC-4 with the Registrar of Companies.
7. Filing Form MGT-7 with the Registrar of Companies.
8. Checking the Appointment of Auditors and filing Form ADT-1 for the respective appointments.