1. Cost Accounting Records and Cost Audit – clarifications about coverage of certain sectors thereunder : MCA has in partial modification of para (b) (iii) of the General Circular No. 67/2011 dated 30thNov, 2011 decided to extend exemption from mandatory cost audit to all units located in the specified zones such as SEZs, EPZs, FTZs, and also 100% EOUs subject to the conditions laid down in the General_Circular_No_11_2012.pdf .
2. Companies (DIN) Amendment Rules, 2012 : MCA vide its Notification G.S.R(E)_dated 28th May, 2012 has issued Companies (DIN) Amendment Rules, 2012 amending the Companies (DIN) Rules, 2006. The amendment shall come into effect from 29th May, 2012.
3. Guidelines for declaring a financial Institution as Public Financial Institution under section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956: MCA has revisited on the criteria’s for declaring a Financial Institution as Public Financial Institution under section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956 and has framed the revised guidelines vide General Circular No. 10/2012 dated 21st May, 2012.
4. Form 8, 10 & 17 can be filed despite default in filing of Balance Sheet & Annual Returns: On the request of various Corporates & Professionals and on account of the difficulties experienced by the stakeholders in filing Form No.8 and Form No.10 (for modification of charges under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFESI)), the MCA has vide its General Circular No. 9/2012 dated 15th May, 2012 decided to accept filing of form 8, 10 & 17, even though the Company is in default of filing its Balance Sheet and Annual returns.
5. Filing of Cost Audit Report (Form-I) and Compliance Report (Form-A) in the eXensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) mode : MCA vide General Circular No. 8/2012, dated 10th May, 2012 has mandated that the Cost Audit Reports (Form I and Compliance Reports (Form A) in respect of companies liable to get their cost accounts audited for the year 2011-12 onwards (including the overdue reports relating to any previous year) have to be filed by the Cost Auditors and the Companies in XBRL Format.
6. Investor Education and Protection Fund (Uploading of information regarding unpaid and unclaimed amounts lying with Companies)Rules, 2012: MCA vide its Notification G.S.R_352(E)_dated 10 May, 2012 has made Investor Education and Protection Fund (Uploading of information regarding unpaid and unclaimed amounts lying with companies) Rules, 2012 which have come into force with effect from 20th May, 2012. According to the said rules, every company (including Non-banking Financial Companies and Residuary Non-banking Companies) is required to identify and file the information of unclaimed and unpaid amounts as referred to in sub-section (2) of section 205C of the Companies Act, 1956.
This information is mandatorily required to be uploaded on the website of the company and on the website of the Ministry within a period of 90 days after the holding of Annual General Meeting or the date on which it should have been held as per the provisions of section 166 of the Act, and every year thereafter till completion of the seven years’ period. The information is to be filed in eForm 5- INV as per the above mentioned rules.
Updates – Limited Liability Partnerships
1. Annual filings for the financial year ending 31st March, 2012
All the Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and the rules made thereunder, upto 30th September, 2011 have to mandatorily close their financial year as on 31st March, 2012 and file the Form 11 (Annual Return of the Limited Liability Partnership) and Form 8 (Statement of Account and Solvency of the Limited Liability Partnership). To read more, please access http://www.llp.gov.in/
The Form 11 has to be filed within 60 days of the close of the financial year to which it relates i.e., on or before 30th May, 2012. The Form 8 has to be filed within 30 days of the end of the 6 months from the close of the financial year to which it relates i.e., on 30th October, 2012.
LLPs registered from 01-10-2011 to 31-03-2012 have option either to close financial year as on 31-03-2012 or 31-03-2013 and to file Form-8 & 11 accordingly.
2. Integration of LLP system into MCA – 21 system
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has come up with an initiative to integrate LLP system into MCA-21. Once this integration is completed, all the forms relating to the LLPs will have to be filed through the MCA-21 website (www.mca.gov.in/MCA21).
As a first step towards integration, the filing of Form-1 (name availability) and Form-24 ( Strike-off of the name of the LLP) is temporarily restricted from 21st May, 2012.
Further, the filing of any of the other forms relating to the LLP is temporarily restricted for a period of approx 10 days w.e.f. 31st May, 2012. To read more, please access http://www.llp.gov.in/
3. Status of the forms under Pending for user clarification or resubmission after integration
If any of the forms of the LLP filed are kept under resubmission or pending for user clarification, then the same cannot be accessed after the integration process is completed. So, forms under the above referred heads will be liable to rejection and will be marked as invalid and the LLP will be required to file the fresh form with fees and additional fees.
In view of the above, it is suggestible that the promoters or persons in control of the LLPs take steps to clear off the forms under the Pending for User Clarification or resubmission before the integration process completes. To read more, please access http://www.llp.gov.in/.