The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has offered relaxation in certain compliance requirements for businesses, including a longer interval between two board meetings in view of the hardships during the second wave of the pandemic.
Companies are normally required to hold a minimum of four board meetings in a year with the interval between them not exceeding 120 days. This has now been relaxed by 60 days so that the interval could go up to 180 days, the ministry said in a notification issued on Monday.
The ministry also said in a separate notification that it has received several requests to waive the additional fee for late filing of statutory forms which fall due between 1 April and end of May in view of the covid-19 restrictions and disruption.
The ministry said these requests have been examined and taking into account the difficulties due to resurgence of coronavirus infections, extra time without additional fee has been granted till the end of July for filing statutory forms. In the case of filing forms to report creation or modification of a charge (lien or claim) on the assets of a company under various circumstances, the ministry has issued another notification granting relief. Accordingly, in cases where due date had expired before 1 April, extra time has been granted till end of May.
The finance ministry has already given relief for various compliance requirements related to income tax and goods and services tax (GST), besides exempting basic customs duty and agriculture cess on various medical supplies used in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on lives with over 222,000 deaths.
The central government has not favoured a lockdown of the country during the second wave, but several states had to impose curbs on movement and assembly of people to break the chain of infections. India has so far vaccinated over 15 crore people, or roughly 12% of the population. The second wave is expected to slow India’s economic recovery from an expected 7.7% contraction in FY21.
Source: Ministry of Corporate Affairs
