Ministry of Corporate Affairs

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “MCA”) has issued a General Circular dated 21^st March, 2013, amending the Companies (Acceptance of Deposit) Rules, 1975. These rules will be called Companies (Acceptance of Deposit Amendment) Rules, 2013. The amendment substitutes the following sub clauses:

• Amendment of Rule 2(b)(x) of Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 1975:

Any amount raised by issue of bonds or debentures secured by the mortgage of any fixed assets as mentioned in the Schedule VI of the companies act, 1956 (excluding intangible assets) or with an option to convert them in to equity shares may be issued subject to the condition that the amount thus raised must not be greater than the market value of mortgaged fixed assets.

Before amendment, this rule only dealt with immovable property. Thus, this amendment increased its scope to fixed assets as mentioned in Schedule VI, but it does not include intangible assets.

• Amendment of Rule 11A of Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 1975

The Regional Director, Registrar of companies or any other officer of the Central Government is authorised to make complaints under section 58AAA (2) of the companies Act.

Before the rule 11A only authorised Regional Director to make complaints under section 58AAA. Now the scope is increased to RD, ROC and any officer authorised by Central Government.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “MCA”) has in continuation to its General Circular no: 03/2013, dated 08th February, 2013 issued General Circular No. 07/2013 dated 20^th March, 2013 extending the time limit untill 31^st March, 2013 for filing and relaxation of additional fee on various forms were the due date was falling between 17^th January, 2013 to 28^th February, 2013.

Further it has clarified that, an affirmative step will be taken by the ROC by raising a ticket and the additional fee mentioned therein will be:

• Change of additional fee against respective SRN in the database

• Regeneration of the Challan with revised Filing fees

• Extension of filing period of the challan to 7 days from the date of change.

• Sending of an e-mail to the user along with the challan with a request to pay the revised amount.

The other scenarios where the documents have been expired after 17^th of January, 2013 due to non submission/ re-submission will be restored back and for the for the forms on which fee was payable till 16th of January, 2013 no relaxation will be considered until 17^th of January.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “MCA”) has issued notification vide G.S.R.173 (E) dated 15^th March, 2013, amending the Companies (Director Identification Number) Rules, 2006. These rules will be called Companies Director Identification Number (Amendment) Rules, 2013. As a result of the amendment, a new Rule 8 has been inserted which deals with the Cancellation or Deactivation of DIN, in case :

• the DIN is found to be in Duplicate

• the DIN was obtained by wrongful or fraudulent manner

• of the death of the concerned individual

• the concerned individual has been declared as a lunatic by the competent court

• the concerned individual has been adjudicated as insolvent

then the allocated DIN shall be cancelled by the Central Government or by the Regional Director (NR), Noida or by any other officer authorised by the Regional Director, (NR).

Before cancellation of the allotted DIN, an opportunity will be given to the concerned person for being heard and for the purpose of these rules the words “fraudulent” mean obtaining DIN in unlawful manner for deceiving any person including Central Government and “wrongful” means obtaining DIN without legally established documents.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “MCA”) has issued General Circular No. 06 /2013 dated 14^th March, 2013 with reference to the Union budget 2013-14 which authorizes Union Government to raise Rs.50,000 Crores (Tax free bonds) at a low rate of interest. Presently the range of 6.75% to 7.5% interest bonds are tax free under section 10(15) (IV) (h) of Income tax act, 1961. MCA has observed that, due to the restriction under Sec 372A (3) of Companies Act, 1956 the response for tax free bonds are very poor.

With a view to implement the budget effectively, the MCA has Clarified that in cases where the effective yield (effective rate of return) on tax free bonds is greater than the yield on prevailing bank rate, there is no violation of Section 372(A)(3) of Companies Act, 1956.