MCA extends deadline for companies to submit annual filings

Companies must now file annual returns and financial statements by Nov 29; earlier deadline was Oct end

Corporates have been given more time to submit their annual filings under the companies law with the government extending the deadline by one more month.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has extended the deadline till November 29 for the companies to file their annual returns and financial statements, after receiving representations from various stakeholders.

The deadline was to end this month.

The last date has been extended after receiving representations from various quarters and that there were some issues with respect to XBRL, according to a senior official.

Under the Companies Act, 2013, entities are required to electronically submit their returns through MGT-7 form while for financial statements the form is AoC-4.

"Last date for filing of financial statements and annual returns under the Companies Act, 2013 using e-forms AoC- 4/AoC-4 (XBRL)/AoC-4 CFS or MGT-7 as the case may be without payment of additional fee wherever applicable has been extended till November 29, 2016," the Ministry said in a notice.

XBRL and CFS refers to eXtensible Business Reporting Language and Consolidated Financial Statement, respectively.

Earlier this month, the apex body of company secretaries ICSI had written to the Ministry seeking extension of deadline for submission of annual filings.

Among others, ICSI had mentioned that the "recently issued XBRL taxonomy is yet to get fully settled in the tools and with the users and also in the filings connected thereto".