With the new wave of Startups hitting the nation and the ministry's objective of providing greater "Ease of Doing Business" to corporates, the government has taken been continuously taking initiative to make the companies registrationprocess more simple and easy. Recently government has come up with Companies (Incorporation) Third Amendment Rules, 2016 on 27th July, 2016.Earlier Companies (Incorporation) First and Second Amendment Rules came in May 2015 and January 2016 respectively.
As compared to the earlier times, Government (Ministry of Corporate affairs) is slowly but surely making the registration process of the company simple, easy with less documents and paper work. With this new Amendment Ministry has now omitted two more documents from registration papers.
The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 (25TH MAY 2015)
The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 came on 25th May, 2015 which omitted the criteria of minimum capital which was minimum Rs. 1 lakh for private companies and Rs. 5 lakh for public Companies, i.e., company can now be Incorporated with "ZERO" capital. Having common seal for the company was made Optional.
Three Amendments in (Incorporation Rules) In Last Three Years.
FIRST AMENEDMENT (May 2015)
Earlier the entrepreneurs need to file at least 5 (Five) e-form for registration or incorporation of the company, which took 15-20 days for completion of registration and getting certificate of incorporation.
- Filing separate form for getting Director identification number (DIN) for all the proposed Directors of the Company
- After allotment of Din Filing another Form for application for Reservation of name of the company.
- After approval for reservation of name filing three more forms for getting certificate for incorporation of the Company.
The Ministry bought First Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules with Introduction of New Integrated Form INC-29, the ministry Shortened the Process of Registration. Different forms for registration has now been merged into this single Integrated Form i.e., now Din application form , name reservation form, Three form for getting certificate of Incorporation has been rolled into One E-form. Government claims that if the name of your company is unique and is not similar and resembling with any existing name of the company, your company can be incorporated in 24 hours after the submission of documents.
SECOND AMENEDMENT (January 2016)
Simplifying Naming Guidelines
Naming approval procedure was the primary cause for delay in the Registration process of the company. The broad guidelines given by the Ministry allowed plenty of room to the approving authority to reject the proposed names. These oppositions were sometimes justified, but are more often arbitrary. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), vide notification dated January 22, 2016, issued the Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2016 in which MCA omitted some of the guidelines for approval of name.
Prior to amendment, (a) the name of the company was required to be in consonance with the principal objects of the company, (b) abbreviated name based on the name of the promoters of the company were not allowed, (c) if the key word used in the name proposed was the name of a person other than the name(s) of the promoters or their close blood relatives, No objection from such other person(s) was required to be filed with the application for reservation of name. The Ministry omitted all these criteria in making the name approval. Now if the name of the company is not consonance with the principal objects of the company then also the name will get approved. It is not necessary that object of your business should be reflected in the name.
Central Registration Centre (CRC)
Prior to amendment,Company registration process was carried by respective offices of the state where the jurisdiction of the registered office of the company was situated. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) established The Central Registration Centre (CRC) which is an initiative and objective of providing speedy Registration process of the company to the entrepreneurs. Now all the company Incorporation service across India will be carried at One Place. The CRC is located at Sector 5, IMT Manesar, District Gurgaon (Haryana). The CRC will be having territorial jurisdiction all over India.
THIRD AMENEDMENT (28-07-2016)
Two more documents Omitted
After two amendments in Incorporation rules, Ministry of Corporate affairs MCA on 28th July 2016, released the Companies (Incorporation) Third Amendment Rules, 2016 in continuation with the government objective of providing greater "Ease of Doing Business" to corporates.
In most of the Companies, Director and subscriber to the memorandum (Promoter of the company) is one and the same person. Prior to amendment, every subscriber to the memorandumwas required to file Proof of Identity and proof of address to the Registrar of Companies.
The fact is that every Director needs to take Director Identification number and while making application for obtaining DIN, Proof of Identity and proof of address is already submitted to the government. Therefore if the same person is promoter of the company while incorporation, there was no logic of submitting the same documents again and again to the government.
After amendment now subscriber to the memorandum (Promoter) holding a valid DIN, and if the particulars of DIN is updated as on the date of application, the proof of identity and residence need is no longer required to be submitted with the Incorporation form. The promoter just have to give a declaration in the application that the Information of his Identity is updated.
One more document named INC-10 has now been omitted after the amendment. The subscriber to the memorandum (Promoter) was required to attach form INC-10 which was the specimen signature with latest photograph. Again there was repetition of the documents, since the photograph and signature of the promoter is already attached with the memorandum and articles of association.
Disclaimer: Statements and opinions expressed in articles are those of the author's personal views.
About the author: Satyendra Kumar Mishra
Satyendra Kumar Mishra is the founder and CEO of EmpressLegal.com which was founded with the singular objective of offerings the highest quality corporate and incorporation services to its clients all over the globe. Since its foundation, EmpressaLegal.com has helped entrepreneurs across India to incorporate their businesses in a fast and secure manner.