TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Implementation of e-Governance Programme named as "MCA21-Project" Scheme for filing of Statutory Documents and other Transactions by Companies in Electronic Mode
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....Government in the electronic mode. The Central Government hereby makes the scheme for implementation and administration of e-Governance programme as follows:- Short Title and Commencement 1. (1) The Scheme shall be known as the "Scheme for Filing of Statutory Documents and other Transactions by Companies in Electronic Mode". (2) This Scheme shall be applicable from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. The Scheme 2. The Scheme for Filing of Statutory Documents and other Transactions by Companies in Electronic Mode is at Annexure 'A'. Application of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000) 3. The Scheme would operate under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, and insofar as the provisions for use of Information Technology are not specifically made under the Companies Act, 1956, the provisions contained in the Information Technology Act, 2000 will apply. Saving 4. The transactions filed in the electronic mode and processed pursuant to the launch of the first pilot project for e-Governance, i.e., MCA21, at Coimbatore with effect from 18-2-2006 and subsequent operationalisation of the project at different locations till the date ....
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....Companies (Amendment) Act, 2006 (No. 23 of 2006), published in the Gazette of India (Extraordinary), dated the 30-5-2006 the Companies Act, 1956, provides under section 610B of the Act, a comprehensive statutory framework for enabling electronic filing, storage, retrieval, viewing, processing and transmission of company data required to be filed with the Registrar of Companies under the Companies Act, 1956. The Central Government may appoint different dates in respect of different RoCs or Regional Directors from which such scheme shall come into force. (5) Since the processing of company documents submitted in the electronic form would also be carried out electronically, it is envisaged that filing of all statutory forms, their processing, approvals and responses by the RoCs thereon would also be in electronic mode. The Scheme 2. The Scheme for Filing of statutory Documents and other Transactions by Companies in Electronic Mode relates to electronic filing, storage, retrieval viewing, processing and transmission of company data required to be filed with the Registrars of Companies, Regional Directors and Central Government under the Companies Act, 1956. Transactions cov....
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....all the records. A Disaster Recovery Centre has also been set up at Chennai in order to provide for a back-up of the Electronic Registry to which recourse can be taken in the event of any technology break-down, man-made or natural disaster incapacitating the Data Centre. The operations can be revived within a period of 12 hours in the event of services getting disrupted from the Data Centre. As the sovereign data is managed by an external third party, the project envisages setting up of a Government Secure Repository (GSR) to which the data would be archived periodically. (b) The Central Government shall maintain all the records filed electronically in a secure electronic registry so as to ensure that these are available to the public as well as to the Central Government offices as and when required. The periodicity of maintenance of these records is governed by the rules framed under the Companies Act, 1956. Documents maintained in electronic registry will be available for public access and shall be weeded out in accordance with the retention period prescribed under the rules. (2) Director Identification Number (a) A conce....
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....rted into electronic Forms (e-Forms) so as to make the same compatible with the e-Governance processes. The e-Forms have already been notified for electronic use. The process of re-engineering and revision of e-Forms is a dynamic process and may call for changes from time to time depending on the information requirements and technology changes. As such, these e-Forms would continue to be revised as per the felt needs from time to time so as to optimize the processes under the e-Governance system. (b) The e-Forms have been designed with in-built features to facilitate stakeholders. Requirements of repetitive data entry have been significantly reduced. Where such data is needed to be repeated in some of the forms, a facility known as "pre-fill" has been provided to the user whereby the data in the required fields is captured from the data- base available in the electronic registry in an automated manner. (c) The process of electronic filing also incorporates the facility of "pre-scrutiny" of the e-Form. This is a completely electronic process where the system verifies if the form is complete in all respects. This is, however, li....
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....bsp; (b) Where companies maintain and submit their Financial statements as part of Annual Returns and the Balance Sheets (e-Form-20B & Form-23AC) in electronic formats (such as Microsoft(tm) Word or Excel), the same will need to be converted into PDF, thereby obviating the need for scanning these attachments to the extent feasible. For those, who do not have in-house facilities or are first time users of the system, the MCA Portal and the Facilitation Centres would be available to facilitate the required conversion into PDF. In addition, these facilities would also be available at the Certified Filing Centres (CFCs) on payment of user charges. (c) There may be some attachments which are much bulkier in size (more than 2.5 MB) where uploading the documents may be time-consuming (for instance, in the case of list of shareholders of companies with a large base of shareholders). In such cases, facility for acceptance of these documents in soft-copy in computer readable media would also be supported. (8) Physical submission of paper Notwithstanding the mandating of e-Filing, companies would be required to submit physical copies of the documents re....
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....ed at the RoC office. (11) Requests for Certified Copies Requests for certified copies would also be facilitated through electronic means with the implementation of the programme. This functionality is built as an extension of the Inspection of Public Documents, where the user can mark the specified pages and number of copies that are required as certified copies. In case of documents available in the electronic registry, a person can request for certified copies of the selected documents on-line (on payment of prescribed fees). The requestor would also be required to submit the Non-Judicial Stamp Papers of the prescribed value and Court Fee, as applicable in various States. The certified copies of the documents will be sent in physical form to the requester by post/courier under the manual signatures and seal of the competent authority. However, in respect of documents not available in the electronic registry, the option of requesting certified copies in manual form will still be available. Prescribed fees will be applicable. (12) Data verification & cleaning (a) Before implementation of the e-Governance programme described in this scheme, the ....
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....p; (a) Suitable forms have been devised for investors to make complaints and for a complainant to seek redressal of his grievances in the electronic mode using the e-Governance programme. The idea behind instituting the electronic submission of complaints is to ensure that complete details of the complaint are obtained so that the facilitation of redressal can be done effectively. It also provides a facility to consolidate the type of complaints that are received against any company, so that the company can effectively analyze the causes and take remedial action. The persistent complaints and serious nature of complaints also provides the Government with early indicators of problems in companies so that reasonable steps can be taken as provided by the Law, to protect the interest of the investors/depositors/stakeholders. (b) The communication to the companies as well as the complainants would be sent in paper mode during the initial period. This would gradually be phased out and replaced with electronic interaction response. (c) Facilitates to provide the management information on complaints to the company Director....
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....sp; (b) To ensure sustainable performance of the e-Governance solution, the Government has established a six-year operating period with the selected Operator. Beyond this period, Ministry would evolve a suitable structure to seamlessly operate the same. Such a structure could include setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and could entail introduction of user charges for sustaining the operations by such an entity. (c) The services under the e-Governance project shall be available to the stakeholders on a round-the-clock basis throughout the week basis thereby enabling introduction of the concept of anywhere, anytime filing in electronic mode in a secure manner for all transactions with and by the Ministry of Company Affairs. But for exigencies beyond reasonable control, the Operator has been made responsible under the contract for maintaining reliable availability of system to support this concept. (16) Facilitation Centres (a) As for the facilitation, the Government has planned to set up Facilitation Centres at 53 locations throughout the country as part of the project out of which Facilitation Centres at 39 locati....