MCA-21 to kick off at Coimbatore

Coimbatore is set to become the first city to roll out e-filing and on-line access to information at the Registrar of Companies (RoC) as part of the nationwide MCA-21 project.

"The pilot at Coimbatore would go live on 16 January. Delhi, which has over 1,00,000 companies registered at its RoC, would go live in February," a senior company affairs ministry official said. Coimbatore has about 7,000 registered companies.

As part of the Rs 341-crore MCA-21 project being implemented by Tata Consultancy Services, two directors in each of the over 6,70,000 companies nationwide would need to have digital signatures in order to make use of the facilities. The project envisages computerisation of all RoCs to enable e-filing and online access of documents by companies and firms.

Besides, the authorised signatory for each company, for example the company secretary, would also need to obtain a digital signature. The web portal would accept digital signatures obtained from any of the seven issuing agencies in India.

With the e-filing and on-line access in place, companies would be able to electronically file documents from anywhere through the Internet on payment of the necessary RoC fees.

"If a banker wants to independently check the financial record of a private company or verify the charges on the assets, he would be able to access the records on-line, instead of having to visit the premises," the official said. Citizens would also be able to request for certified copies on-line.

On-line filing and access would be available for permanent documents like memorandum of association, articles of association and certificate of incorporation and routine mandatory documents like annual returns, balance sheets and charge documents.

Annual reports of 2003-04 and 2004-05 would also be available on-line. "A payment gateway would be put in place so that all the requisite fee can be paid on-line though credit cards," the official said. Besides, payment can also be made at the branches of State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

"The system will provide a pre-filled bank challan that can be printed and payment can be made at the bank within a week," the official said.