Section 80 forming part of The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 dated 3/01/2018 sought to amend section 403 of The Companies Act, 2013. Section 403 deals with Fees for filing. The amendment thereto was brought by substituting the content of the first and second provisos in case of sub-section (1) of Section 403.
The opening lines of section 403, preceeding the aforementioned provisos read as-
“Any document, required to be submitted, filed, registered or recorded, or any fact or information required or authorised to be registered under this Act, shall be submitted, filed, registered or recorded within the time specified in the relevant provision on payment of such fee as may be prescribed:”
What followed were the provisos laying down the quantum of additional fees on delay in submission, filing, registration or recording of the required document, information or facts. The amended provisos read as-
FIRST PROVISO
“Provided that where any document, fact or information required to be submitted, filed, registered or recorded, as the case may be, under section 92 or 137 is not submitted, filed, registered or recorded, as the case may be, within the period provided in those sections, without prejudice to any other legal action or liability under this Act, it may be submitted, filed, registered or recorded, as the case may be, after expiry of the period so provided in those sections, on payment of such 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:”
SECOND PROVISO
“Provided further that where the document, fact or information, as the case may be, in cases other than referred to in the first proviso, is not submitted, filed, registered or recorded, as the case may be, within the period provided in the relevant section, it may, without prejudice to any other legal action or liability under this Act, be submitted, filed, registered or recorded as the case may be, on payment of such additional fee as may be prescribed and different fees may be prescribed for different classes of companies:”
THIRD PROVISO
“Provided also that where there is default on two or more occasions in submitting, filing, registering or recording of the document, fact or information, it may, without prejudice to any other legal action or liability under this Act, be submitted, filed, registered or recorded, as the case may be, on payment of a higher additional fee, as may be prescribed and which shall not be lesser than twice the additional fee provided under the first or the second proviso as applicable.”
Analysis of the above three provisos:
The first proviso mentions the late fees in form of additional fees to be levied in case of annual return (MGT-7) and financial statements (AOC-4). The same will be arrived at using per day basis and should not be less than Rs.100/-. Rules will have to be referred to in order to calculate the same.
The second proviso mentions the late fees in form of additional fees for cases other than those concerning MGT-7 and AOC-4. Rules will have to be referred to in order to calculate the same.
The third proviso mentions the higher additional fees in those cases where the above defaults are recurring in nature.
Out of the above three provisos, the first one came into effective from 7/5/2018 while for the rest, 1/7/2022 has been notified as the date of effect vide MCA notification dated 11/1/2022.
It would be safe to conclude that the impact of the above amendment was not on fees paid at the time of filing but the additional fees and higher additional fees that comes into play when there is delayed filing.
