MCA drops RoC approval for most corporate actions

The ministry of corporate affairs has simplified the process for corporate reporting, eliminating the need for approval by Registrars of Companies (RoCs) in most cases and allowing companies to fulfil their reporting obligations with an online acknowledgement, two people informed about the development said.

- Gireesh Chandra Prasad

The new system, called "file and forget" by policymakers, is part of the government's ongoing revamp of the statutory filing website, MCA21, one of the two people cited above said, requesting anonymity. Companies can now fulfil most of their statutory filing obligations with an online acknowledgement, equivalent to approval by RoCs.

Of the nearly 100 forms that companies need to file as part of compliance requirements under the Companies Act on various transactions and filing obligations linked to statutory requirements, 56 have been migrated to a new web-based version in January, and an additional 30 web-based forms will be launched soon.

"Among these, the majority of the critical ones, such as allotment of securities or shares, are now out of RoC approval requirement. Online acknowledgement is enough, and they are taken on record under an auto-approval process. Earlier, barring a few, most forms filed by companies used to go to RoCs for their approval," said the first person cited above.