Less hassles for firms filing returns

The new Minister of Company Affairs with independent charge Prem Chand Gupta has set himself a task to drastically reduce the paperwork that companies have to carry out while submitting their balance sheets to the Department of Company Affairs (DCA).

Gupta told Business Standard that he was appaled that corporates filing their balance sheets with the DCA had to annually spend upto Rs 300 crore just as compliance costs.

"My target is to bring this figure down by at least one zero" he said. Accordingly orders have been issued to Registrars of Company Affairs to speed up  computerisation and electronically transmit documents including the filing fee.

Gupta blamed the paperwork on Section 212 of the Companies Act which requires a company to file audited balance sheets of all its subsidiaries in addition to its own balance sheet.

For companies like Tisco, for example, this created files of monumental proportions. "I want to end this" he said. The miniser said that deadline for the Exit Route Policy has been extended. It provided a chance redundant companies to wind up operations by March 31 this year.