General Circular No. 06/2021, 07/2021 and 08/2021 issued by MCA
On May 03, 2021, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued three circulars keeping in view the difficulties arising due to COVID-19 pandemic. These circulars were issued to provide relaxations on filings of forms with MCA and holding of meetings of Board of Directors of the Companies. While General Circular 06/2021 and 07/2021 are with regard to the relaxations on filing of forms, General Circular 08/2021 is with regard to gap between holding of two board meetings. On May 13, 2021, MCA has published the list of forms for which the relaxation under Circular 06/2021 and 07/2021 can be availed. However, MCA has added 8 more forms to the list on May 21, 2021.
General Circular 06/2021
In accordance to the circular, any forms under the Companies Act, 2013 and LLP Act, 2008 the due date of filing of which falls between April 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 can now be filed by July 31, 2021 without any additional fees. This relaxation however, is not provided to charge related forms.
The relaxation can be availed for the following forms as specified by the MCA:
All the above forms can now be filed by July 31, 2021, irrespective of their due dates without additional fees.
General Circular 07/2021
The relaxation under this circular has only been provided to forms relating to creation and modification of charges by the company or a charge holder and not for the form related to satisfaction of charges. The due date for filing of Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9 is 30 days from the date of creation or modification of charges and can be filed upto maximum of 90 days from the expiry of 30 days (i.e., 30 days + 90 days = 120 days)by paying additional fees.
There are two situations that has been explained here-
Situation 1: Where the charge creation/ modification were done before April 01, 2021, but the due date of filing the form has not expired (i.e. where the period of 120 days has not expired as on 1st April, 2021).
Relaxation of time: For the purpose of computing the timeline under this situation the period from April 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 shall not be considered. The first day after March 31, 2021 shall be considered as June 01, 2021 for the purpose of counting 120 days instead of April 01, 2021.
Let’s say-
If a company has created a charge on March 14, 2021, it can file the charge form by May 31, 2021 without any additional fees.
Where the company does not file the form by May 31, 2021, in such case, since the charge was created on March 14, 2021, March 31, 2021 will be the 17th day of creation of charge. By the virtue of this circular, June 01, 2021 will be considered as 18th day of creation of charge instead of April 01, 2021.
Fees: For the purpose of computing the fees, the fees payable as on March 31, 2021 shall be considered where the form is being filed on or before May 31, 2021.
Where the company does not file the form on or before May 31, 2021, then the fees computed after adding the number of days starting from June 01, 2021 till the date of filing plus the time period lapsed from the date of creation/modification of charge till March 31, 2021 (i.e., No. of days from 01.06.2021 to date of filing + No. of Days from Charge creation/ modification to March 31, 2021) shall be construed.
Let’s say:
The charge was created on March 14, 2021 and as on March 31, 2021 the due date of 30 days has not lapsed and hence the company can file the form with nominal fees if the filing is done on or before May 31, 2021.
Now let’s assume that the filing is done June 30, 2021, in such case, (No. of days from 01.06.2021 to date of filing + No. of Days from creation of charge to March 31, 2021) will be considered.
Hence,
No. of days from 01.06.2021 to date filing is 30 days.
No. of days from creation of charge to March 31, 2021 is 17 days.
Your nominal fees will be for 30 days and additional fees will be computed for 17 days.
Situation 2: Where the date of creation/modification of charges falls between April 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 (including both the days).
Relaxation of time: Where the charge/modification is created between April 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021, the period till May 31, 2021 shall not be considered for the purpose of counting the number days of creation / modification of charge.
Where the form is not filed by May 31, 2021, June 01,2021 shall be considered as the first day of creation/modification of charge. The number of days of creation/modification of charge shall be construed accordingly.
Let’s say,
1. a charge was created on April 02, 2021 , the company can file the form by May 31, 2021 without any additional fees.
2. a charge was created on April 02, 2021, but form is filed on June 30, 2021, then June 01, 2021 will be the first day for counting the no. of days for creation of charge instead of April 02, 2021.
Fees: Where the form is filed by May 31, 2021, the company can file the form without any additional fees.
However, where the form is not filed by May 31, 2021, June 01, 2021 shall to be considered as day 1 and the number of days till the date of filing of the form shall be counted accordingly for the purpose of payment of fees.
Let’s say-
1. Charge was created on April 02, 2021 and the company has filed the form before May 31, 2021. In such a case no additional fees is required to be paid.
2. Charge was created on April 02, 2021, but form is filed on June 30, 2021, then June 01, 2021 will be the first day and June 30, 2021 will be the 30th day. Hence, no additional fee is required to be paid.
Note:
A. This circular shall not apply to the following:
1. Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9 that has already been filed before the date of issue of this circular.
2. The timeline for filing the forms has already expired under section 77 or section 78 of the act prior to April 01, 2021.
3. Filing of Form CHG-4 which is filed for satisfaction of charge.
B. In order to simplify the understanding of the above circular, one shall omit the period from April 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 for any consideration.
General Circular 08/2021
In accordance to section 173 of the Companies Act, 2013, a gap between two board meetings shall not be more than 120 days. However, by the virtue of this circular the number of days has been extended by 60 days for the first two quarters of the financial year 2021-22. Thus, it means that the gap between two board meetings can be upto 180 days instead of 120 days for Quarter April to June 2021 and Quarter July to September, 2021.
In case you seek any clarity or have any particular query, please do write to me at anjalibansalcs@gmail.com
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