Relaxation of Due Dates-By MCA (Companies Act and LLP’s) due to CoVID-19

In order to reduce the compliance burden, including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at large and also enable long-standing non-compliant companies/ LLPs to make a 'Fresh start' MCA has came with notification due to COVID-19.

Following are the notification came up by MCA

1. No Additional Fees

No additional fees shall be charged for late filing from 01st April to 30th September 2020, in respect of any document, return, statement like, MSME Form-1 and DIR-3 KYC etc., required to be filed in the MCA-21 Registry, irrespective of its due date.

2. Extension in gap between 2 Board Meetings

As per section 173 of the Companies Act, 2013 there is a mandatory requirement of holding Board meetings and gap between 2 board meetings should not exceed 120 days stands extended by 60 days till 30th September ie, 180 days.

3. Extension of CARO 2020

The Companies (Auditor's Report) Order,2020 was notified to be applicable from financial year 2019-2020. It has been made applicable from the financial year 2O2O-2O21 instead of being applicable from the financial year 2019-2020.

4. Independent Directors Meetings

As per Para Vll (1) of Schedule lV to the Companies Act -13, Independent Directors are required to hold at least one meeting without the attendance of Non-independent directors and members of management. For the financial year 2019-20, if the Independent Directors of a company have not been able to hold such a meeting, the same shall not be treated as a violation.

However, the Independent Directors, may share their views amongst themselves through telephone or e-mail or any other mode of communication, if it seems to be necessary.

5. Deposit repayment reserve

As per Section 73(2)(c) of Companies Act -13 there was a mandatory requirement to create a separate reserve of 20% of total Deposit amount maturing in the Financial year by 30th April of the Financial Year. For the Financial year 2020-21 the date of 30th April 2020 has been extended to 30th June 2020.

6. Investing or depositing in specified methods

As per rule 18 of Companies (Share Capital & Debentures) Rules, 2014 it was mandatory to invest or deposit at least 15% of the total amount of debentures maturing in specified methods of investments or deposits before 30th April. For the Financial year 2020-21 the date of 30th April 2020 has been extended to 30th June 2020.

7. Declaration of Commencement of Business

As per Section 10 A of Companies Act -13 every newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within 180 days of date of incorporation. An additional 180 days has been provided for the compliance which comes to 360 days.

8. Minimum residency of one director

As per Section 149 of Companies Act -13, In every company at least one director should have minimum residency in India for a period of at least 182 days or else will be treated as Non-Compliance. For the Financial year 2019-20 it shall not be treated as a non-compliance.

Disclaimer:“The information contained herein is only for informational purpose and should not be considered for any particular instance or individual or entity. We have obtained information from publicly available sources, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or it will continue to be accurate in future. No one should act on such information without obtaining professional advice after thorough examination of particular situation.”