The government has started a consultation process that will likely reduce the number of forms to be filed by companies under the Companies Act besides consolidating the forms with similar statutory purpose. The concept note from the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) also seeks public comments on building a framework that will integrate the MCA data with other regulatory bodies such as GSTN, CBDT, SEBI, banks, UIDAI and RBI to eliminate duplicate cross-regulatory reporting by the companies.

Cross-Regulatory Integration
The note specifically seeks stakeholder inputs to review the MCA filing architecture across the entire corporate lifecycle, including entry, operations and exit. Under the proposed reforms, the ministry is planning to harness artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and intelligent pre-filling to deliver an accurate, and error-minimised compliance experience. Additionally, there’s a proposal to rework the compliance requirements based on the size of the company, sector, and risk profile. This will ensure that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), startups, and small producers are not disproportionately burdened with the statutory filing obligations.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has asked the finance ministry to spell out a clear legal strategy, including options such as a “golden share” or indirect control structures, to maintain strategic oversight in public sector entities if state ownership falls below 51 per cent.

Economic Survey on definition of government company
The 2025-26 (FY26) Economic Survey had proposed to amend the definition of a “government company” so that listed central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) with as little as 26 per cent government ownership would retain that status, preserving special-resolution rights while allowing deeper disinvestment.

This would allow the government to pursue phased stake sales below 51 per cent without changing the law, enabling professionally managed CPSEs with dispersed ownership to emerge.

The government has proposed to increase the minimum net profit threshold for mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by companies to Rs 10 crore. This move aims to ease the burden on companies with nominal profits, allowing them to focus on growth rather than CSR contributions.

In addition, the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 tabled in Parliament on Monday, proposes to give companies more time to transfer funds to the unspent CSR account for long-term projects.

Currently, under Section 135 of the Companies Act, companies with a turnover above Rs 1,000 crore, a net worth above Rs 500 crore, or a net profit exceeding Rs 5 crore must spend at least 2% of their average net profits from the previous three years on CSR.

The corporate affairs ministry has proposed a one-time scheme, under which penalties will be drastically cut for companies for late filings of their financial statements and annual returns, enabling them to improve their compliances.

The Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026, will remain in force between April 15 and July 15. It will allow companies to complete their pending submission of annual returns and financial statements during these three months by paying just 10% of the stipulated penalties, according to a circular issued by the ministry.

Since July 2018, companies are required to pay an additional fee of Rs 100 per day for the late filing of annual returns and financial statements.

The corporate affairs ministry on Tuesday extended the deadline for filing of financial statements and annual returns under the companies law till January 31, 2026. The extension of the deadline, which was to initially end on December 31, comes against the backdrop of representations from various stakeholders. Many of them were facing issues with the filing system. These filings are for the financial year 2024-25. "...in view of the representations received from stakeholders, the competent authority has decided to allow companies to complete their annual filings [e- Forms MGT7, MGT-7A, -4, C-4 CFS, AOC-4 NBFC (Ind AS), AOC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS), AOC4 (XBRL)] pertaining to FY 2024-25 up to 31st January, 2026 without payment of additional fees," the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) said in a circular on Tuesday.

The Corporate Affairs Ministry on Friday said it has not issued any circular mentioning that relaxations have been provided for additional fees and extension of timelines for filing financial statements under the Companies Law. "It has come to the notice of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) that a fake General Circular No. 08/2025 dated 26th December, 2025 is being circulated, which falsely claims relaxation of additional fees and extension of timelines for filing of Financial Statements and Annual Returns under the Companies Act, 2013," the ministry said in a post on X. Advising stakeholders not to rely upon or act on such fake or misleading communications, the ministry also said that for authentic and updated information, stakeholders should refer only to official communications published on the ministry's website mca.gov.in.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in a notification has allowed companies to file their financial statements and annual returns for FY 2024–25 using the newly revised e-forms on the MCA-21 version 3 portal without paying additional fees. In view of deployment of new e-forms, and considering that companies may require some time to get familiarised with the filing process, and keeping in view the requests received from various stakeholders, the ministry has been decided that companies will be allowed to complete their annual filings for FY25 till December 31, 2025 without payment of additional fees, the ministry statement said. As per the ministry, the revised e-forms on which the relaxations have been provided are MGT-7, MGT-7A, AOC-4, AOC-4 CFS, AOC-4 NBFC (Ind AS), AOC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS), and AOC-4 (XBRL). Experts said that it’s a huge breather for companies which are still figuring out the new reporting mechanism, and the clarification would help them avoid paying hefty additional fees for the delay in annual filings. “This one-time extension will allow companies to adjust to the new requirements. This step is aligned with the government’s vision to promote ease of doing business,” said a company law expert.

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) will shortly discontinue the version 2.0 (V2) of the MCA21 portal, a platform used by companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to make statutory filings, incorporation and closure of companies. In a notification, MCA said that it is launching a final set of 38 company forms, including 13 annual filing forms, 6 audit/cost audit forms on July 14. This launch will effectively shift the entire company filing process from V2 to the version 3.0 (V3) of the MCA portal, rendering V2 obsolete. To facilitate implementation of these forms in V3, the MCA has issued a set of guidelines for the stakeholders. To begin with, the ministry said that company e-filings on V2 will be disabled from June 18 this year. The notification also said that stakeholders are advised to ensure that no service request numbers (SRNs) are under pending payment or resubmission status. “Stakeholders are requested to check the SRNs that are currently pending, especially related to investor details and subsidiary details, and upload the details by using services available on MCA portal,” the notification said

The corporate affairs ministry is set to strike off the names of more than 3,300 companies from the official records after receiving applications for removal of their names. Registrar of Companies (RoC) from various states and Union Territories issued public notices regarding striking off the names of these companies in April in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, as per the latest data available with the ministry. More than 3,300 companies across states and Union Territories are set to be struck off from the official records, the data showed.

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has given an extension for private companies to convert their physical shares into electronic form by June 2025. The extension has come as two depositories NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) and CDSL (Central Depository Services Limited) have a huge backlog of applications from companies to deal with. Experts said that many of the private companies have applied for dematerialisation which was notified by the MCA in August 2023. “The enforcement of the notification witnessed a slew of applications for dematerialisation with depositories which increased their task.

The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) on Monday recommended that the auditing standards proposed for companies be made applicable to limited liability partnerships (LLPs) as well, according to a press statement. The decision to make these recommendations to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs was made during its 19th board meeting. “The authority decided to recommend the 40 standards on auditing (SA) and related standards on quality management, which were finalised by the authority in its 18th meeting held on November 11-12, 2024 for the audit of companies, to be applicable to the audit of LLPs on a mutatis mutandis basis,” the press statement said. While all board members, including the Reserve Bank of India, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), supported all the proposals, ICAI shared its reservations about three, including SA 600, SA 800, and standards on quality management. The institute had opposed these proposals with respect to companies in the last board meeting of NFRA as well.

The government has set up a special team to address stakeholders' grievances related to MCA21 portal, the key platform for submitting various filings under the companies and limited liability partnership laws. There have been some issues faced by the stakeholders in using the portal. With respect to the portal, the corporate affairs ministry on Wednesday said it has a regular review system for the concerns raised by the stakeholders through emails, helpdesk system, ticketing tools, chatbot and social media handles. "As a further measure of resolving issues of urgent nature, a special team has been constituted which will look into the grievances for efficient disposal, suggest systemic solutions, if required, and provide better guidance to the stakeholders for their compliances on MCA21 portal," it said in a release.

The government is planning to “double the strength” of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with addition of more benches and members, as it aims to cut down the time the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) takes to complete at present, official sources privy to the matter told FE. “The existing strength of NCLT benches is unable to cope with the volume of CIRPs under way within the mandated time period of 330 days,” an official said. “The proposal so far is to double their strength, and it may happen in a few months.” Currently, the NCLT has a sanctioned strength of 63 members, which includes both judicial and technical members; it consists of 16 benches across India. Sources said the benches may increase to over 30, and the member-strength may rise to around 115.

In a big relief to professional directors who switch organisations mid-year or businesses that undergo global restructuring, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has allowed the KYC form to be filed multiple times for any change in email ID or mobile number throughout the year, through its latest notification. MCA’s notification dated July 16 said, “....if an individual intends to update his personal mobile number or his email address again at any time during the financial year….he shall update the same by submitting e-form DIR-3 KYC on payment of fees of five hundred rupees.” Earlier, once annual KYC was filed, mobile numbers and email IDs could not be updated till April the next year. Experts said that as a consequence of this, directors missed important communications from the MCA regarding their new organisations where they get appointed as directors.

A series of notices from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has created confusion amongst India’s multi-national companies regarding beneficial ownership disclosures. The ministry is learnt to be adopting a strict interpretation of beneficial ownership by insisting on disclosures as to who has control, say legal experts. Until now, the practice has been to identify beneficial owners primarily through economic ownership. The MCA’s stance has left several MNCs unsure about as to what can be construed as ‘control’ and whether this entails reporting key executives of the foreign parent company as beneficial owners of Indian subsidiaries, say experts. On May 22 , the registrar of companies (ROC) fined LinkedIn and Satya Nadella, the chief executive of LinkedIn’s parent company Microsoft, for breach of Significant Beneficial Ownership (SBO) norms. Similarly, an Indian subsidiary of Korean giant Samsung was fined by ROC for violation of SBO rules. Both companies had declared they did not have any beneficial owner.

The ministry of corporate affairs has proposed a few key changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) rules, including a hike in the cap for “administrative expenses” incurred by the companies under CSR function to 10% from 5% now. As part of a set of recommendations made to the finance ministry ahead of the Budget 2024-25, the MCA also sought longer timeline for completion of projects taken up under CSR. Currently, “ongoing projects” are defined under the CSR obligations as those with duration of up to three years, but industry feels since many large projects practically take more years to make a meaningful impact, the project tenures should be longer. “The current timeline of 3 years for ongoing projects is not justified for the corporates to take up large multi-year projects. The relaxations in CSR could be announced in the Budget and changes in the rules may follow,” said an official.

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has chalked out a plan for the first 100 days of the new government to assume office after the elections. Besides a clutch of changes to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) aimed at expediting the resolutions and expanding the ambit of the mechanism, the action plan includes streamlining of the existing rules under the Companies Act, 2013 and bolstering the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). “The MCA will engage in increasing the number of members at NCLT beyond the current sanctioned strength. Besides, the proposal by the industry to create separate benches for IBC (insolvency and bankruptcy code), and company law-related matters within the NCLT will also be taken up,” said an official source.

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has begun a comprehensive review of the rules and regulations, including the norms for accounting and auditing practices. According to Manoj Govil, secretary-MCA, extensive public consultations would be carried out for the review, which is aimed at making compliance easier, and making regulation more system-driven and effective.

In the backdrop of big corporates like Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) coming under scrutiny for alleged governance lapses, the Centre is likely to review the related party clause of the Companies Act 2013 and may look at further strengthening it, a senior government official said. “The government will focus attention on the related party clause. It will see if there is a need to strengthen it. How do we strengthen the related party clause? This will engage the government's attention. All the big investigations have found the issue of related party transactions. Currently, the regime is lenient and disclosure-based,” the official told Moneycontrol. The official said that the recent investigations of ZEEL are likely to allegedly expose the issue of related party transactions.

The government has operationalised the central processing centre for processing filings under the companies law and LLP Act in a “time-bound and faceless manner” as part of efforts to further improve the ease of doing business. Initially, 12 forms and applications under the companies law will be processed at the Central Processing Centre (CPC). From April 1 onwards, other forms and applications will be processed through the centre.