File returns by due date: MCA to firms

New Delhi, Oct 20, 2023

The ministry of corporate affairs has asked businesses to file their annual returns and financial statements for FY23 by the due date in order to avoid having to pay additional penalty.

The ministry said in an advice posted on its website that companies have to follow their due date which in turn depends on the date of their annual general meeting, as per the Companies Act.

Businesses have six months after the end of the financial year to the hold annual general meeting, one month from the AGM to file financial statements and 60 days from the AGM to file annual returns.

Delays attract additional penalties of ₹100 per each day.

Thus, financial statements have to be filed latest by end of October and annual returns latest by end of November. About 1.5 million active companies have to file these statutory documents this year.

The message from the ministry comes after the government decided to allow companies to file their annual reports and financial statements using the older version of the forms (known as version two) rather than introducing the latest high security forms just before the filing season.

The idea was to avoid any disruption in filing these vital statutory documents. Over 50 other statutory filing requirements have already been migrated to the new high security forms. In those cases, the ministry had also given relief in terms of extra time to file the documents without additional fee.

The forms for annual returns and financial statements will be migrated to the new version with two-factor authentication after the current filing season, said a government official on condition of anonymity.

[Mint]