Following measures have been implemented by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to reduce their compliance burden and other risks:
- No additional fees shall be charged for late filing of document, return, statement etc., required to be filed in MCA from 01st April to 30th September 2020, irrespective of its due date.
- The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within the intervals i.e. gap between two meetings stands extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30th September. Accordingly, as a onetime relaxation the gap between two consecutive meetings of the Board may extend to 180 days till the next two quarters, instead of 120 days as required in the CA-13.
- The Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order,2020 will be made applicable from the financial year 2O2O-2O21 instead of being applicable from the financial year 2019-2020
- lndependent Directors (lDs) are required to hold at least one meeting. For the financial year 2019-20, such non-compliance will not be viewed as a violation. However, they may share their views amongst themselves through any mode of communication, if necessary.
- Newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within 180 days of incorporation under section 10A of the CA-13. Now an additional period of 180 das is allowed for this compliance.
- 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 CA-1 3 will not be treated as a non-compliance for the financial year 2019-20.
- Requirement under section 73(2)(c) of CA-13 to create the deposit repayment reserve of 20% of deposits maturing during the financial year 2020-21 before 30th April 2020 will now be allowed to be complied with till 30th June 2020.
- Requirement under rule 18 of the Companies (Share Capital & Debentures) Rules, 2014 to invest or deposit at least 15% of amount of debentures maturing in specified methods of investments or deposits before 30th April 2020, may be complied with till 30th June 2020.
The said Circular can be accessed through the following link: MCA_Circular 11_24.03.2020_Special measures in view of COVID19