The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) through a series of circulars issued on 03 May 2021 provided certain relaxations on (i) levy of additional fee for filing certain forms, (ii) timeline for filing charge related forms; and (iii) extension of time gap between two consecutive meetings of the board.
A brief of these circulars is provided below:
Relaxation on levy of additional fees in filing of certain forms:
In respect of forms that are due for filing during 01 April 2021 to 31 May 2021, MCA has granted additional time upto 31 July 2021 for companies/LLPs to file such forms (other than Form CHG-1, Form CHG-4 and Form CHG-9) without any additional fees. Accordingly, no additional fees shall be levied upto 31 July 2021 for the delayed filing of forms (other than the charge related forms as referred above) which were / would be due for filing between 01 April 2021 to 31 May 2021.
Relaxation of time for filing form related to creation or modification of charges:
Similarly, MCA has vide this circular, decided to allow relaxation of time and condone the delay in filing Forms related to creation / modification of charges, that is, in respect of Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9.
| Applicability | Relaxation of Time | Fees |
| Where the date of creation/modification of charge is before 01 April 2021 and the timeline for filing such form has not expired as on 01 April 2021 | The period beginning from 01 April 2021 to 31 May 2021 shall not be reckoned for the purpose of counting the number of days under Section 77 or 78 of the Companies Act, 2013. | If the Form is filed on or before 31 May 2021, the normal fees payable as on 31 March 2021 shall be charged. If the Form is filed after 31 May 2021, the fees shall be charged per the applicable Fees Rules after adding the number of days beginning from 01 June 2021 and ending on the date of filing plus the time-period lapsed from the date of creation of charge till 31 March 2021. |
| Where the date of creation/modification of charge falls on any date between 01 April 2021 to 31 May 2021 | The period beginning from the date of creation/modification of charge to 31 May 2021 shall not be reckoned for the purpose of counting the number of days under Section 77 or 78 of the Companies Act, 2013. | If the form is filed on or before 31 May 2021, the fees payable as on 31 March 2021 shall be charged. If the Form is filed after 31 May 2021, the first day after the creation/modification of charge shall be reckoned as 01 June 2021 and the number of days till the date of filing the form shall be counted accordingly for the purpose of payment of fees under the relevant Fees Rules. |
Non-Applicability: This circular shall not apply, in case:
- The Form CHG-1 and Form CHG-9 had already been filed before the date of issue of this circular;
- The timeline for filing these forms have already expired under Section 77 or 78 of Companies Act, 2013 prior to 01 April 2021;
- The timeline for filing these forms expires at a future date, despite exclusion of the time provided in ‘Relaxation of Time’ column above;
- The filing of Form CHG-4 for satisfaction of charge.
Relaxation of time gap between two consecutive board meetings:
Further, MCA has also extended the time gap between two consecutive meetings of the board. It has stated that the time gap may be extended to 180 days during the quarter April – June 2021 and the quarter July – September 2021, instead of 120 days as required under Section 173 of Companies Act, 2013.
