According to MCA as part of Government of India’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) initiatives, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has notified & deployed a new Web Form Christened ‘SPICe+’ (pronounced ‘SPICe Plus’) replacing the existing SPICe form.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is replacing the existing SPICe (Simplified Performa for Incorporating Company Electronically) form with a new web form called SPICe+. The existing form, which is used for reservation of name, company incorporation, DIN allotment, and application for PAN/TAN, in its new avatar, would offer 10 services by three central government ministries and departments, the ministry said in a notice on its website. The form would be applicable for all new company incorporations from February 15, 2020, onwards, the ministry said. The 10 services to be offered by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labour & Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance and Maharashtra government will save “as many procedures, time and cost for starting a business in India.” it said.
SPICe+ would be an integrated Web form offering multiple services viz. name reservation, incorporation, DIN allotment, mandatory issue of PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, Profession Tax (Maharashtra) and Opening of Bank Account. It will also facilitate allotment of GSTIN wherever so applied for by the Stakeholders. After deployment of SPICe+ web form, RUN shall be applicable only for change of name of existing companies.
SPICe+ is divided into two parts PART A and PART B. PART A for name application and PART B for a host of services including incorporation, DIN allotment, mandatory issue of PAN, mandatory issue of TAN, mandatory issue of EPFO registration, mandatory issue of ESIC registration, mandatory issue of Profession Tax registration (Maharashtra), mandatory opening of bank account for the company and allotment of GSTIN if applied for. Users may submit both parts together or one after the other.
IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPICE+:
1. The form SPICE+ offers an optional service for use of Part A and Part B:
Explanation:
Option 1: Users may either choose to submit Part-A for reserving a name first and thereafter submit Part B for incorporation & other services
Option 2: Users may file Part A and B together at one goes for incorporating a new company and availing multiple incorporation services as mentioned above.
2. From 15th February 2020 onwards, RUN service would be applicable only for ‘change of name’ of an existing company.
3. Resubmission of applications for company name reservation and/or incorporation shall also be handled through the application number/Name applied for link on the new dashboard. A hyperlink will be available for the SRN/application number, so as to enable easy resubmission, wherever required.
4. Registration for EPFO and ESIC shall be mandatory for all new companies incorporated w.e.f 15 February 2020 and no EPFO & ESIC registration nos. shall be separately issued by the respective agencies.
5. Registration for Profession Tax shall also be mandatory for all new companies incorporated in the State of Maharashtra w.e.f 15th February 2020.
6. All new companies incorporated through SPICe+ (w.e.f 15th February 2020) would also be mandatorily required to apply for opening the company’s Bank account through the AGILE-PRO linked web form.
7. Declaration by all Subscribers and first Directors in INC-9 shall be auto-generated in pdf format and would have to be submitted only in Electronic form in all cases, except where:
(i) Total number of subscribers and/or directors is greater than 20 and/or
(ii) Any such subscribers and/or directors have neither DIN nor PAN.
SOME OF THE CHALLENGES/DRAWBACKS
Earlier in AGILE form it was not mandatory to apply for GSTIN, EPFO and ESIC it was discretionary on promoters whether to apply or not for GSTIN, EPFO and ESIC and the existing process of registration through common portal was available. However through AGILE PRO MCA has made mandatory for Company to register for EPFO and ESIC Registration, Profession Tax Registration in the state of Maharashtra and mandatorily open bank account with MCA partnered banks.
Government should have paid attention to the present requirement of Labour law registration where EPFO registration is applicable to an entity where the number of employees reaches 20 or more and for ESIC registration it is 10 or 20 employees (varies from State to State) drawing wage of 21,000/- or less. Mandatory EPFO / ESIC registration irrespective of applicability under the relevant Labour Law is an added burden of compliance on the Company.
Disclaimer: The write-up is for educational purpose only.
(Author – CA MRIDUL GUPTA, MRIDUL GUPTA & COMPANY, CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS from Delhi and can be contacted at camridulgupta0709@gmail.com).
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