Why Corporate Identity Number (CIN) & Know Structure of CIN

Now first question which must come to your mind why CIN is allotted to company so let’s find out the answer to this question if you see other law like under Income-tax law you get PAN, under GST law you get GSTIN etc. just like in similar way CIN is allotted to company on incorporation for identification of companies and general public can also know status of company (whether it is listed or not), idea of activities of company (industry code of business), age of company i.e. year in which it has been incorporated and whether it is public company, private company, government company etc.

On incorporation your company will be allotted CIN by Registrar (now there is centralized registration centre (CRC) located in Manesar Gurgaon which handles incorporation process application (from name approval to incorporation of a company) and issue certificate of incorporation on behalf of jurisdictional registrar) and this CIN is mentioned on certificate of incorporation as per section 7(3) of the Companies Act, 2013.

Section 12(3)(c) casts responsibility every company to get CIN printed on business letters, billheads, letter papers and in all its notices and other official publications.

Object of section 12(3)(c) is to give some basic information to general public or person dealing with the company. That is why section 12(3)(c) requires display of CIN along with company’s other details.

CIN is 21 characters alpha numeric code where first letter (alphabetic) tells whether company is listed or not (L in case of listed and U in case of unlisted)

Next five numeric digits represent the industry code of business

Next two digit or letter represents state where registered office of the company situated i.e. state of registration of the company

e.g. for companies incorporated in Delhi these two letters will DL, in case of Maharashtra it will be MH etc.

Next 4 digit will be year of incorporation of the company

e.g. if a company is incorporated in 2021 then these 4 digits will be 2021.

Next three characters i.e. alphabets will indicate type of company

Type or nature of company  Code

1. Private company PTC

2. Public company PLC

3. One person company OPC

4. Nonprofit company (section 25 company) NPL

5. Subsidiary of foreign company as private limited company FTC

6. Public company with unlimited liability ULL

7. Private company with unlimited liability ULT

8. Company owned by Government of India GOI

9. Company owned by State government SGC

10. General association private GAT

11. General association public GAP

12. Financial leasing company as public limited FLC

Next 6 digits (numerics) are registration number of the company.

If any default is made in complying with the requirements of section 12(3)(c), the company and every officer who is in default shall be liable to a penalty of one thousand rupees for every day during which the default continues but not exceeding one lakh rupees.

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Disclaimer – Author has exercised utmost care while writing this article, but still this article may contain some error or mistake and no part of this article/writing should be construed or considered as any advice or consultancy whether professional or otherwise.

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