e-Filing: Submitting forms at Ministry of Company Affairs

Submitting a form has always scared me as something being a waste of time: filling up a form without knowing for sure what to write, standing on a queue for a long time, getting a challan and go to pay it at another place, go back with the receipt and get the acknowledgment, etc. Or get a middle man who would do this for you and twenty other people at a much quicker pace but opening a wide space for illegalities and corruption which ultimately harm the whole system.

Thank God, the Ministry of Company Affairs decided to do away with all that not very long ago. Now-a-days, you can only submit forms through their e-Filing system at www.mca.gov.in. From there you can do everything, from downloading the pdf form to paying the fees and getting your approval or whatever you are trying to get.

Today I submitted my application for a new company which I’m opening with my friend.

First, you need to register in the site. At least, for submitting Form 1A it is enough to register as a “Registered User” (the other option is “Business User”).

Once you are inside, do read the steps for filing forms. An interesting warning they give there is that you should download the latest form every time you want to submit a form as they change often (in my case I had filled up an old Form 1A I had saved from last year, and had to do it again in a newly downloaded form).

You will see it is quite a simple procedure: download the form, fill it up, pre-scrutinize it (correct any errors you may get), add your digital signature to the form, submit it… all of this through a Java applet (get ready to wait for few seconds/minutes while the whole thing is uploaded). Then, you will be re-directed to the payment get-way which may be through net banking (there are only a few options of banks), credit card or printing a challan and paying at the bank physically (I guess this is in case you want to remain in the old good times).

After you have paid you will get a confirmation message, but which disappears in almost no time. Thus, just in case, check the payment status. If it says PAID, then great, otherwise you will have to use the re-submission facility (you should have taken note of your SRN) and pay again.

All of this is, of course, for Form 1A, where you don’t need the signature of a Company Secretary or Chartered Accountant. Later on, for other forms you will need it and most probably they will do the for you.

By the way, as a correction to my previous post a name through Form 1A is now only for 60 days, instead of 6 months as it used to be earlier. For renewing you have to pay Rs.250 in case you haven’t incorporated your company yet.