India: MCA Notifies The Incorporation (Amendment) Rules, 2017: Doing Business In India Further SPICe-d And Digitized

On January 25, 2017 the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 were amended by the Companies Incorporation (Amendment) Rules, 2017¹ (Revised Rules) and the same came into effect from January 30, 2017. Under this amendment the newly fashioned version of ' SPICe' (Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically) now necessitates obligatory submissions for both PAN (Permanent Account Number) and TAN (Tax Deduction Account Number) for all new filings. As notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) for cases marked for resubmission prior to January 30, 2017, stakeholders are required to download the older version of SPICe form for resubmission. The filing of SPICe forms including resubmissions will be accepted by MCA from February 1, 2017 onwards.

As per reports, the revised format requires fresh applicants to submit duly signed PAN and TAN forms linked with the SPICe form and these corollary linked forms for PAN and TAN will be auto generated once the SPICe forms are submitted with the MCA21 system.² Therefore, the new version of SPICe application will be processed after Forms 49A for PAN and 49B for TAN are duly filed and the payment of requisite fee is confirmed by the MCA.

Rule 18 of the Revised Rule mentions that Certificate of Incorporation shall be issued by the registrar in Form INC-11³ and shall also mention the PAN of the Company where if it is issued by the Income Tax Department.

Further, the notification⁴ also released form INC-11, and INC-32 that have been revised to give effect to the above changes.

Way Forward

This move enables the creation of a single platform that enables digital submission of incorporation documents along with E Memorandum of Association and E Articles of Association within streamlined timeframes. This further underscores a consolidated attempt to incorporate companies together with tax identification of the entity. Therefore, these changes furthers ease of doing business in India.

Footnotes

1. http://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/IncorporatinRules_27012017.pdf

2. Kritika Singh, New Companies Will Soon be Able to Apply For PAN, TAN Online, http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/SdKN7pAL8Iq32wTxQRp0zI/New-companies-soon-be-able-to-apply-for-PAN-TAN-online.html

3. Certificate of Incorporation under Companies Act, 2013.

4. Supra Note 1.

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