Permanent DIN number mandatory from July 1

All directors on the board of companies will mandatorily need a director identification number (DIN) from July 1. The number is also mandatory for e-filing of various returns and documents.

"All existing and new directors will have to pay a fee of Rs 100 to obtain the number", a senior official in the ministry of corporate affairs told Business Standard.

All provisional DINs issued earlier will become invalid after June 30, if the director concerned does not apply for a permanent number. Once it is allotted, the number would remain valid for the life-time of the individual, the official added.

Till now, the Registrar of Companies (RoC) has issued 5,30,000 identification numbers. Requests for another 1,70,000 have been rejected on account of mistakes in the applications.

"Applicants commit common mistakes like using abbreviations in the name, date of birth discrepancies between the application and supporting documents and not mentioning the particulars of certifying authorities ," the official added.

The RoC will also conduct a role check, by which the digital signatures of company representatives, professionals would be required to affix digitial signatures for submitting an electronic form.

If a different digital signature certificate is already registered against the given DIN, the person will be asked to update his or her digital signature.

Through the MCA-21 programme, anyone can access corporate documents, request for certified copies, register complaints and track transaction status of the companies by logging on to www.mca.gov.in.

The MCA-21 initiative is part of the government's e-governance drive."If the user wants to view documents that are not in the public domain, he will have to pay Rs 50 as fees, while other documents can be viewed free of charge", the official added.