Extension of Condonation of Delay Scheme, 2018

With a view to give an opportunity for the non-compliant, defaulting companies to rectify the default, the Central Government decided to introduce a Scheme namely “Condonation of Delay Scheme 2018” which was earlier effective from 1st January, 2018 to 31st March, 2018. Now MCA extends the scheme by one month, so the last date to file the pending documents under the scheme is 30th April, 2018.

This scheme is applicable to all defaulting companies except the companies which have been stuck off/whose names have been removed from the Register of Companies under section 248(5) of the Act. A defaulting company is permitted to file its overdue documents which were due for filing till 30/06/2017 by temporarily activating DIN of disqualified directors in accordance with the provisions of this Scheme.

Under this scheme only the Annual Filing Forms can be filed with ROC and no other form will be accepted by the ROC. On adopting the above scheme, the concerned Registrar will withdraw all the pending prosecution(s) for all documents filed under the scheme. “However, this scheme is without prejudice to action under section 167(2) of the Act or civil and criminal liabilities, if any, of such disqualified directors during the period they remained disqualified.”

A few months ago, MCA, with an intention to crackdown on shell companies, had disqualified more than two lakh directors of shell companies within a span of 15 days, for not filing their financial statements or annual returns for two straight years, violating provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. Such companies can now take the advantage of the Scheme.

We can say that this extension will be a big relief for the defaulting companies and a chance to rectify the non compliance.