Considering the current crisis, ICSI requested Ministry of Corporate Affairs to grant an extension of time to the companies for holding AGM for the year ended 31st March, 2021 till 31st December, 2021 so as to provide relief to all the companies and stakeholders.
THE INSTITUTE OF
Company Secretaries of India
IN PURSUIT OF PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE
Statutory body under an Act of Parliament
(Under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Corporate Affairs)
MCA: 2021
16th August 2021
Shri Rajesh Verma, IAS
Secretary
Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Government of India
Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road
New Delhi -110001
Subject: Request for extension of timelines for holding Annual General Meeting (AGM) due to COVID-19
Respected Sir,
We appreciate various schemes and relaxations introduced by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in providing relief and reducing the financial burden for the stakeholders in the difficult times and enabling the corporates during Covid-19 pandemic to carry out the compliance with much ease and without imposing additional financial burden.
Considering the difficulties faced by the stakeholders, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) extended the timeline for conduct of AGM by top 100 listed entities by market capitalization vide circular dated 23rd July 2021. Accordingly, such entities shall hold their AGM within a period of six months from the date of closing or the financial year for 2020-21. Circular Attached for your ready reference.
We appreciate the important step taken by the MCA for upgrading the MCA21 website to Version 3.0. The updated Version 3.0 will be a significant milestone in promoting ease of doing business. This Version will be more user friendly and add to the convenience of stakeholders. The first phase of Version 3.0 being launched in May 2021.
We once again wish to bring to your kind notice towards the challenges being faced by corporates in this scenario where the pandemic has bounced back with severe intensity during the second wave. According to various researches, the third wave of Covid-19 may hit India in the month of August end/September. This may adversely affect the corporates during the month of August and September which are considered as the peak season for Annual General Meetings. This might also impact the annual filing which is done by most of the corporates in the months of October and November.
For the purpose of convening the AGM, audited financial statements is the pre-requisite and is required to be circulated along with the Notice of AGM. Due to current situation, there remains a practical difficulty in completing the Audit formalities as physical verification remains a challenge for the professionals. Majority of the offices are not fully functional and are not working with their full staff strength. In many States, the authorities have announced strict Covid-19 guidelines or lockdown, social distancing norms and notified containment zones, due to which the professionals are facing difficulty in complying various compliances under the Companies Act, 2013.
Considering the current crisis, we request your esteemed office to grant an extension of time to the companies for holding AGM for the year ended 31st March, 2021 till 31st December, 2021 so as to provide relief to all the companies and stakeholders.
We request you to consider the above suggestions at the earliest possible as most of the companies will soon start the process of finalising and dispatching their annual reports.
We shall be pleased to provide any further information in this regard on hearing from your good self.
Thanking You,
Yours faithfully,
Woe.
(CS Asish Mohan)
Secretary
First, AGM deadlines and IT deadlines should be in sync. For example, Companies mandatory to file 94E account statement have normal time for filing IT returns till Nov 30, 2021. Suppose a company finds any major fault in its financials while filing 94 E after conducting AGM (because deadline is 30 Sep) could not oorrect financials. So the companies forced to complete 94E statement before 30 Sep, this result the benefit of ITR deadline Nov 30 for 94E TP companies could not be useful. So is the case when IT extends due date, MoCAffairs should also extend the due date.
Government should consider extension forsmall companies it’s very hectic to work in lockdown conditions
My company was incorporated on 2nd nov 19. We filed commencement of business only on 5th aug 20 and even opened bank account at that time only. There were no transaction for 19-20. We did not conduct any agm for that year as there was nothing in the Financial statement. Now Auditor says we must have conducted agm for 19-20 before 31 dec 20 and that we might have to pay hefty fines. Should we conduct agm? please advice
Why government is delaying these , They have to act fast.
please tell us what is the probability of extending date to conduct AGM
What is the probability of having any
extension for AGM 2021?
The Government should consider giving extension for conducting AGM for the period ended 31st March 2021 on considering the pandemic prevailing and due to that the Companies could not operate in full strength.
This is the real and must need of the time. The NDA government should open their ears to listen to the professionals. The new website of Income Tax is totally not working and MCA website is also went down so it is an impossible task for anyone to match the deadlines. The due date extension is really really needed not only by all the professionals but also by the general public.