Registration process for firms shorter

Entrepreneurs wishing to set up a company can now hope to get approvals for their projects in five days. In an attempt to eliminate delays at the registrar of companies (RoCs) and the regional directorates (RDs), the government has pruned the time limit for processing various documents.

The company affairs ministry has asked the commerce ministry for details of trademark registration so that the application of name-rectification can be disposed of quickly.

It also wants to involve the national informatics centre for developing a software tool for trademarks.

To ensure that new time limits are actually adhered to, the performance of RDs and RoCs will be judged on the basis of the time they take to process applications.

Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta has asked his department to dispose of in 30 days requests of companies seeking modification in data required to be stated in balance sheets, or profit and loss accounts under Section 211 of the Companies Act.

"We have reduced the time limit for approval of the name and registration of a company to 5 days from 13," said an official.

The time limit for a change in a company's name has been slashed to 7 days from the existing 15. The ministry has also asked RDs to decide on name changes within 30 days and avoid frequent adjournments.

Rectification, unlike a change in name, takes more time as it may need sorting out disputes involving another company name or a registered trademark.

Requests for extending the time for holding AGMs will now take 7 days instead of the existing 10. The time limit for approval of contracts in which directors are interested has been reduced to 21 days from the existing 30.

The ministry has also directed that applications seeking exemption from the requirement of attaching subsidiaries' documents at the time of filing of a company's accounts should also be processed in 30 days.

Investor complaints before RoCs will now be settled in 7 days. Complaints against RoCs and RDs will be addressed within a fortnight.

The only exception where the time period has been extended is for issuance of licences to charitable companies. It will now take 45 days instead of 30 days as the licences are to be issued 30 days after the concerned RD advertises the public notice.

The company affairs secretary has been asked to monitor any case pending at RDs, RoCs and the department for more than 90 days.

The time period for clearing all other documents filed with RoCs has been reduced to 30 days from 60 days.