Increase in additional fee for late filing of Annual Return-Balance sheet with ROC by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017

Increase in additional fee for late filing of Annual Return-Balance sheet with ROC by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 

The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Bill No. 73-C of 2016) was passed by the Lok Sabha on 27/07/2017. The Act inter alia has amended section 92 related to Annual Return of the company and section 137 which provides for filing of financial statements of the company in with registrar of companies.

As per sub section (4) of section 92, the time limit prescribed for the filing of Form MGT-7 related to  Annual Return is 60 days from the date of holding of Annual general Meeting (AGM). Under section 137(1), the time limit for filing the financial statements (i.e. balance-sheet) in Form AOC-4 is 30 days from the date of holding of AGM.

Simultaneous amendment has also been made to section 403 which deals with fees for filing.  The proviso to sub-section (1) has been substituted to provide that the Annual return or the Financial Statements of a company if not filed within the prescribed time can be filed on payment of an additional fee as may be prescribed, which shall not be less than one hundred rupees per day and different amounts may be prescribed for different classes of companies.

It has been further provided that in case of default on two or more occasions the document can be filed on payment of a higher additional fee, as may be prescribed and which shall not be lesser than twice the rate of additional fee i.e. the Higher Additional fee shall be at least Rs. 200/- per day.

The additional fee and the higher additional fee is yet to be prescribed by bringing suitable amendments to The Companies 9registration Offices and fees) Rules, 2014. However, as stated in the section itself the additional fee for late filing of Annual return (MGT-7) or the Financial Statements (AOC-4) shall be not less than Rs. 100 per day. Based on this the minimum additional fee to be paid for late filing in pre and post Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 can be illustrated as under: