MCA notifies Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Amendment Rules, 2020 vide Notification No. G.S.R. 548 (E) dated 07th September 2020 and amended rule 2, in sub-rule (1), in clause (c), in sub-clause (xvii) of Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014. Extract of Revised Rule 2(1)(c)(xvii) is as follows:-
(c) ‘Deposit’ includes any receipt of money by way of deposit or loan or in any other form, by a company, but does not include –
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xvii) an amount of twenty five lakh rupees or more received by a start-up company, by way of a convertible note (convertible into equity shares or repayable within a period not exceeding five Ten years from the date of issue) in a single tranche, from a person.
Explanation.- For the purposes of this sub-clause,-
I. “start-up company” means a private company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 or Companies Act, 1956 and recognised as such in accordance with notification number G.S.R. 180(E) dated 17th February, 2016 issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry;
II.”convertible note” means an instrument evidencing receipt of money initially as a debt, which is repayable at the option of the holder, or which is convertible into such number of equity shares of the start-up company upon occurrence of specified events and as per the other terms and conditions agreed to and indicated in the instrument.
MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 7th September, 2020
G.S.R. 548 (E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 73 read with sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 469 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013), the Central Government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014, namely:-
1. (1) These rules may be called the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Amendment Rules, 2020.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. In the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), in rule 2, in sub-rule (1), in clause (c), in sub-clause (xvii), –
(i) for the words “five years”, the words “ ten years” shall be substituted;
(ii) in the Explanation, in clause I, for the letters, figures, brackets and words “G.S.R. 180 (E) dated 17th February, 2016 issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry”, the letters, figures, brackets and words “G.S.R. 127 (E), dated the 19th February, 2019 issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade ” shall be substituted.
3. In the said rules, in rule 3, in sub-rule (3), in the second proviso, in clause (i), for the words “five years”, the words, “ten years” shall be substituted.
[F. No. 1/8/2013- CL-V Vol VI]
K. V. R. MURTY, Jt. Secy.
Note. – The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i) vide number G.S.R. 256(E), dated the 31st March, 2014 and were last amended vide notification number G.S.R. 341(E), dated the 30th April, 2019.
