36,191 new companies incorporated in Apr-June 2021

• The number of new companies incorporated in the Country under the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 showed an increase of 17,223 in number over corresponding period of last year.
• This was stated by Minister of State for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

Following steps have been taken by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs during the COVID-19 Pandemic:-

1. The Companies Fresh Start Scheme (CFSS), 2020 during the period Apr-December 2020: launched to make a fresh start for companies to be a fully compliant company by allowing them to file belated documents in MCA21 registry without any additional fees from 1st April to 31st December, 2020.

• The said scheme has also given immunity from prosecutions and proceedings for imposition of penalty which might arise on account of such delayed filing of documents.
• 4,73,131 number of Indian Companies and 1,065 number of Foreign Companies have been benefited by availing the CFSS, 2020 scheme for filing their pending documents.

2. MCA introduced an LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020 to provide one-time relaxation in additional fees to the defaulting Limited Liability Partnerships.

3. Ministry granted relaxation on levy of additional fees for companies / LLPs in filing certain forms.
4. Companies have been allowed to hold Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) through Video Conferencing (VC) or other audio-visual means (OAVM) complemented with e-Voting facility/simplified voting through registered emails till 30th June, 2021.
5. Companies have been allowed to conduct their Annual General Meetings (AGMs) by Video Conferencing (VC) or other audio-visual means (OAVM) whose AGMs were due to be held in the year 2020 or become due in the year 2021 to conduct their AGMs on or before 31.12.2021.
6. Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015 have been amended to extend the benefits of COVID-19 related rent concession, that were introduced last year, from 30th June, 2021 to 30th June, 2022.

7. The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within the intervals provided in section 173 of the Companies Act, 2013 (CA-13) (120 days) were extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30th September, 2020.

• Considering the second COVID wave, the Ministry further extended the aforesaid relaxation for the year 2021-22 and accordingly the time gap between two consecutive meetings of the Board may extend to 180 days during the Quarter – April to June and July to September, 2021, instead of 120 days as required in the Companies Act, 2013.

8. The Ministry enhanced the period to thirteen months from 1st December, 2019 within which existing Independent directors may apply online for inclusion of their names in the databank for Independent Directors
9. Requirement for investing 15% of amount of debentures maturing in a particular year in specified instruments has been done away with for Listed companies & NBFCs when such debentures are issued on a private placement basis.