The e - filing is mandatory with effect from 15th September, 2006

The basis of e-filing would depend upon the following three factors:

1. Every company needs to have CIN - Company Registration Number

2. Every Director needs to have a DIN - Director Identification Number 

3. Every document needs to be attested by using Digital Signature

CIN: CIN is the 21 digit registration number that is being issued to companies that have been formed say in the past 4 years. However companies registered prior to issue of CIN would now be required to obtain CIN. The earlier registration numbers were of the type: 08- 12450. The new CIN is of the format U74140KA2005PTC036795. The new CIN can be obtained from the MCA portal without any fees. However, currently as this feature is not enabled on the MCA portal, companies need to manually request the Registrar of Companies to provide them their CIN. 

DIN:  Director Identification Number (DIN) is a unique identification number for an existing director or a person intending to become the director of a company. All the persons who are already Director/s of a company/ies or proposed to be a Director are required to have a DIN compulsorily.  In the present scenario of e-filing, DIN will be a pre-requisite for filing of certain company related documents. No fee is required to be paid for the same. To get the DIN an online application is to be filed. A provisional DIN will be issued after online filing. Thereafter, the printed detail of the fields entered has to be generated. A photo has to be attached on the form with proof of the residence duly attested by Notary/ Gazetted Officer/ Certified Professionals (CA/ CS/ ICWA). The same will then be submitted in the RD office (Regional Director) at Noida. The RD office at Noida will issue the DIN. While filing the forms the company identification number (CIN) also needs to be mentioned. It has been clarified by MCA that on resignation of the Director from a company the DIN obtained does not have to be cancelled. The DIN will remain with the individual only.  This is intended to be a lifetime number. 

Digital Certificate : A Digital Signature is an electronic signature duly attested by a Certifying Authority that shows the authenticity of the person signing the same.  For MCA 21, the following category of persons are identified as users of Digital Signature Certificates (DSC's)

a) MCA (Government) employees

b) Professionals (Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, Company Secretaries & Lawyers who interact with MCA)

c) Authorised signatories and Directors of companies

d) Representatives of Banks and Financial Institutions

 Digital Signature Certificates are used in e-forms to ensure the signatory authentication and authentication of data.  The e-forms and documents shall be digitally signed during the submission of requests by the users namely Directors or professionals.  The Digital Signature Certificate shall also be used to login into the MCA portal instead of a password.

OTHER FEATURES OF E-FILING:

Certification of e-forms

Certification of company documents by practicing professionals as is presently required, has not only been continued by MCA-21 in its e-forms but the same has also been extended to several other forms comprising of Form Nos.2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 17, 18, 23, 24AB, 32. This pre-certification can be carried out by Chartered Accountants in whole-time practice as well as by Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants in practice.  Besides Form 1 of Companies (Declaration of Dividend out of Reserves) Rules, 1975 and Form 1 of Investor Education and Protection Fund (Awareness and Protection of Investors) Rules, 2001 are also to be pre-certified. 

Infrastructure for e-filing

The pre-requisite for using the portal MCA- 21 will be: 

1. P-4 Computer with printer,

2. Internet Explorer 6.0 ver.

3. Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.05 ver. and

4. Digital Signature Certificate.

Facilities 

The following facility will be available in e-filing

1. Pre-filling (based on information already provided).

2. Pre-scrutiny (validation of various entries made)

3. Attachment of document

4. Payment calculated by system

5. Payment may be ‘Challan' based or online through Payment Gateway.

Payment Gateway

The traditional ‘Challan' based systems may be used. MCA has tied up with 200 branches of SEBI, PNB, Indian Bank, ICICI and HDFC Bank for this purpose.  For online payment the Payment Gateway of ICICI Bank has been implemented.

Some Clarifications

MCA has clarified on the following issues:

1. The filing will be done only through the portal  MCA 21 and not through Email.

2. The transaction will be deemed as completed only after clearance of the payment by the bank.

3. The systems will hold the applications for five days till the payment is made

4. Stamp duty will be paper based.  It is proposed that the payment of stamp duties will also be made online in phases through banks in near future.15 states have already authorized the Central Government in this regard (as stamp duty is a State subject) and authorization from the remaining States is expected.

All the information relating to MCA-21 is made available on the new portal www.mca.gov.in. 

In the above context, it is necessary to have all the necessary pre-requisites in place before the MCA portal becomes live to interact efficiently and in timely manner with the Registrar of Companies and for filing of documents in time.