This article has been written by Yesh Singh pursuing Diploma in Legal English Communication – oratory, writing, listening and accuracy and has been edited by Oishika Banerji (Team Lawsikho).
This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Indian economy is slowly becoming a product of globalisation. As per a study, India will surpass other nations to become the 4th largest economy by the end of this decade. It is interesting to note that as a consequence of the same, our corporate fraternity requires an exceptional governance system for its efficient functioning. The responsibility of this fraternity is in promoting compliance in the letter and spirit of the law. The regulatory system must be aligned in accordance with best practices and technological development throughout the world. The government in regards to the same has launched a digital corporate compliance portal, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) 21 Portal to improve the regulatory environment of corporates in India. This article is an ode to the same thereby making it easier for readers to understand the concept of MCA 21.
What is MCA 21
The MCA 21 project is a forward-thinking, technology-driven project designed to strengthen corporate projects, simplify business execution, improve user experience and facilitate seamless integration alongside data exchange between regulators. It is the micro-services architectonic that will improve this project with high scalability and capabilities. MCA brought about an e-governance idea by means of this portal, which could replicate India’s dreams for the twenty-first century, and is determined to create an internet site that could automate a company’s registration process, simplifying things, importing documents, downloading documents, pay and consult. Therefore, the portal has been provided with the name of MCA 21 owing to the twenty-first century it belongs to. To fully automate all processes, the MCA21 portal is designed to create driven enforcement and compliance of the legal requirements under the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. This will assist the corporate community to fulfil its legal obligation.
Salient features of the MCA 21 program
- Secure electronic e-filing will be available anywhere, anytime, and in any mode for the MCA transaction. At just a fingertip, one can make any transaction on the MCA21 portal.
- Adaptation of a new set of electronic forms, resulting in a reduction in the total number of forms and the elimination of repetitive data in each of the electronic forms, is what MCA 21 facilitates.
- Use of digital signatures to guarantee the security of electronic forms and documents in accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000.
- Convenient payment methods include electronic credit card payments and Internet banking in 200 bank branches across the country.
- Ministry back offices to take advantage of the best IT solutions, which is one of the best in the world for corporate affairs.
- 53 customer care centres across the country providing electronic filing and public interface support services.
- Almost 5 million pages of old corporate documents are digitised for electronic access via the Internet, established inter-linkage between the charge data within a given company (including the creation of an Index of charges);
- The National Data Center will provide uninterrupted 24/7 disaster recovery mechanisms with the ability to resume operations within half a day in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
- The easiest way to execute an agreement is e-stamping, a proposal for electronic stamp duty collection approved by the amendment in the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. For this, a web portal is available for payment of the stamp duty. In the system of e-SBTR (Electronic Secure Bank and Treasury Receipt), e-Stamping facilities are provided in the authorised bank, therefore, reducing time and other administrative expenses.
- Introduction of a build-own-corporate transfer model through public-private partnerships to ensure a sustainable level of performance.
- Simple investor complaint report through the MCA portal for a quick and easy solution.
- The facility of authenticating these e-forms using digital signatures is in accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000.
MCA21 to ensure proactive and effective compliance of relevant laws and corporate governance, in India, more than lakhs of companies have been incorporated, a fraction of which is only listed. This project aims to ensure the following by adopting international best practices. MCA 21 is a project designed to ensure transparency and online compliance with the various requirements of the Companies Act 2013 for all businesses. Some of the digital features have been listed hereunder:
- e-Review: MCA is in the process of establishing a central review facility that will review certain Direct Procedure Forms (STPs) submitted by companies in the MCA21 registry and use companies for further review.
- e-Adjudication: The electronic adjudication module is designed to manage the largest volume of adjudication processes by the Registrar of Companies (RoC) and Regional Directors (RD) and will do the end-to-end digitization of the adjudication process for the users. It will provide a platform for online stakeholder hearings and end-to-end decision-making electronically.
- Electronic consultation: To automate and improve the current public consultation process on proposed changes and draft rules, etc, the MCA21 electronic consultation module will provide an online platform where proposed changes/draft legislation will be published on the MCA website for external purposes. Users/comments and suggestions on this in a structured digital form. In addition, the system will also facilitate an AI-controlled sentiment analysis, the consolidation, and categorization of stakeholder inputs, and the reporting based on this as an MCA reference.
- Help desk enabled for chatbots: MCA21 will have a help desk enabled for cognitive chatbots, mobile applications, interactive user control panels, enhanced user experience with AI technologies, and seamless data dissemination via API.
Advantage of MCA21
The MCA 21 project will provide transparency and compliance with rules and regulations. The project is beneficial for the business community and companies will be empowered in many ways, as have been provided hereunder:
- Authorises the business community to register companies and file any document quickly & easily.
- Provides easy access to any required public documents.
- Effectual & rapid resolution to any grievances.
- Access to registration and verification of charges.
- Effective compliance with corporate law moreover gives new meaning to corporate compliance.
- MCA delivers the best service and technology for the business community.
- Easy access to updated laws and legislation related to corporate governance.
Services available under MCA 21
- Registration and incorporation of new companies can be done by making an online application on the MCA21 portal to register or incorporate a new company.
- Presentation of annual accounts and balance sheet through the MCA21 portal, which maintains the data of all the companies online on the portal, where you can download any documents by paying service fees for the 3 hours.
- Submission of forms to change the director’s name/address/details by making an online application on the MCA 21 portal to change or correct the director’s name, address, and other details.
- Registration of various other documents and review of the fees regarding the services used on the MCA 21 portal.
- Review or download any public documents on the MCA 21 portal.
- Inquiries for various MCA legal services on the MCA 21 portal.
- Compensation for investors looking after the investor interest by following company law compliances
Services for banks and financial institutions
MCA 21 serves, in particular, the interests of banks and institutions through the “free registration” procedure. MCA has facilitated the banks/ FI‟s further by allocating administrative passwords to them to enable the creation of administrative login-id for their disbursal officers. This facility enables the creation of a charge on the MCA portal by the bank officers instantly at the time of loan disbursal. The facility has helped the banking and financial sector by enabling effective decision-making related to creditworthiness and evaluation of financial strength. Instant registration of charges has also helped in controlling Non- Performing Assets (NPAs). Now the information is available to them sitting in their own offices saving huge effort.
Viewing public documents with MCA
Public documents are those documents that are authenticated by a public officer and subsequently which is made available to the public at large for reference and use. Public documents are available for viewing, by anyone on payment of requisite fees. Users may need to see public documents of any company registered with MCA for various purposes like change in directors , changes in MOU OR MOA, etc. Banks and financial institutions may also need to view these documents while sanctioning loans. The following are in the category of public documents:
● Incorporation documents
● Charged documents
● Annual returns and balance sheet
● Change in Directors’
● Other documents.
User has to follow below-mentioned steps to view the documents
- Step 1 :-Click on the Link
http://www.mca.gov.in/mcafoportal/viewPublicDocumentsFilter.do
Select the appropriate item from – Company/ LLP
Once selected enter the entity name (Company/LLP) or registration no. (CIN/LLPIN) by ticking in on the appropriate box.
Then Submit the request. Once the request is submitted the following window will open.
- Step 2: –Click on the CIN/FCRN highlighted in blue and portal will direct you to Search for a document of that Company which will be like this:
Document Category – Select the appropriate option from the dropdown.
Year of Filing – Select the appropriate year from the dropdown.
Once the appropriate Document Category and Year of Filing is selected, the user can view the documents, and forms filed during that year. The facility to download the documents is also available on the MCA21 Portal.
For only viewing the “Public Documents” user is not required to log on to the MCA21 Portal. Log-in is mandatory only in case the user is required to download the documents by paying fees of Rs. 100/-.
In order to download the documents user has to follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Step 3: –Click on the “Add this Company to Cart “after which user will be directed to make the payment:
Once the payment is made the user will be able to download the documents, forms. The company for which the payment is made will be reflected in “My Workspace”under “Documents” tab.
Download service will be available for 3 Hours once it is accessed.
Payment of regulatory Fees under MCA 21
The filings by the companies entail payment of regulatory fees. There are several options available for the user to choose either offline payment mode or online payment mode.
- In the offline payment mode, the system calculates the applicable tariffs and generates a pre-filling challan that the user must present to one of the bank branches entitled to pay.
- The list of approved banks/branches is available on the MCA 21 portal. An online payment mode requires you to use a credit card or Internet banking. In the case of online payment, the system generates a receipt of the amount.
Conclusion
MCA 21 is not just a portal but a gateway toward company compliance, transparency, accessing data anywhere around the world and helping the business community. The MCA 21 project is designed to fully automate all processes related to the proactive enforcement and compliance of the legal requirements under the Companies Act, 2013. As part of the government’s commitment to governance reform, the MCA 21 program was launched as the flagship e-governance initiative of the Government of India under the National Electronic Governance Plan (NEGP). The model can be easily adapted by the various state–IT and e-governance departments to enable electronic service delivery, making hassle-free registration and enabling online filing of information and reports. This is a results-oriented program by the MCA for business stakeholders in the 21st century through a service-oriented approach. The end result of this unique initiative is improved speed and security in the provision of MCA services.
References
- https://www.mca.gov.in/content/mca/global/en/home.html
- https://www.caclubindia.com/articles/mca-21-version-30-43971.asp
- https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/corporate-affairs-ministry-to-test-new-mca21-portal-s-version-3-soon-121111200071_1.html
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