MCA has taken various measures to ameliorate difficulties faced due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 29^th November 2021 has notified the measures taken to meliorate difficulties faced due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister stated that the term “closed company” is also not defined under the Act. However, pursuant to the provisions of section 248 (1)  of the Act where the registrar has reasonable cause to believe that companies that are not carrying on any business or operation for a period of two immediately preceding financial years  and has not made any application within such period for obtaining the status of a dormant company under section 455, shall after following the due process of law, struck off those companies from the Register of Companies.

The Minister further stated that companies are also dissolved through amalgamation or otherwise with the approval of the Hon’ble courts.

Further, the measures taken by MCA to address the ameliorate difficulties faced due to COVID-19 pandemic are as follows:

1. The Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020 was launched to make a fresh start for companies to be a fully compliant company by allowing them to file belated documents in MCA 21 registry without any additional fees from 1st April to 31st December 2020. The said scheme has also given immunity from prosecutions and proceedings for imposition of penalty which might arise on account of such delayed filing of documents. As per records, 473131 number of Indian Companies and 1065 number of Foreign Companies have been benefited by availing the CFSS, 2020 scheme for filing their pending documents.
2. The MCA introduced an LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020 to provide one-time relaxation in additional fees to the defaulting Limited Liability Partnerships (‘LLPs’) to make good their defaults by filing pending documents with the Registrar of Companies (‘ROC’ or ‘Registrar’) to ease the hassle of business enterprises.  The said scheme was initially rolled out from 16.03.2020 to 31.03.2020 for certain filings by LLPs. However, due to the COVID 19 pandemic the modified scheme to cover all e forms was rolled out from 01.04.2020 to 31.12.2020. Under the said scheme, the defaulting LLPs were permitted to file belated documents and the LLPs shall not be subjected to prosecution for such defaults.  As per records 105643 LLPs have been benefited by availing the LLP settlement scheme 2020 for filing their pending documents.
3. In the wake of COVID 19 and to provide relief to law abiding companies a scheme was launched for relaxation of time for filing forms related to creation or modification of charges under the Companies Act, 2013 during the period from 01st March to 31st December, 2020. 
4. The companies have been allowed to hold Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) through Video Conferencing (VC) or other audio-visual means (OAVM) complemented with e-Voting facility/simplified voting through registered emails till 30th June, 2021.  Considering the second wave of COVID-19, the Ministry has extended the aforesaid time limit to 31st December, 2021.
5. An additional period of 180 more days has been allowed to comply with the requirement of filing a declaration for Commencement of Business by newly incorporated companies.
6. The expenditure incurred by companies on activities relating to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) Veterans, and their dependents including widows has been considered as CSR expenditure.