Union Finance, Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairs review meeting with Regional Directorates, RoCs
New Delhi, Nov 25: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a meeting to review the Regional Directorates and Registrar of Companies, in New Delhi.
The review meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra; Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA); along with all the senior officers of MCA and all the subordinate offices under MCA, said an official press release. During the meeting, detailed interactions and discussions were held with Registrar of Companies (ROCs) and Regional Directorates (RDs) on issues of processing of forms, fast track mergers, delivery of services like incorporation /voluntary exit of Companies/LLPs through the Central Facilities, e-governance, harmonisation of forms, matters related to adjudication, inquiries, inspection and investigation (3Is) manuals, prosecution, appeals against adjudication orders, compounding of violations. MCA Secretary informed the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister that the MCA has standardised its manuals on enforcement and further process and rule simplification for transparent and timely delivery of services is already underway.
During the review meeting, the Union Finance Minister directed MCA that a live dashboard may be built to ensure that more transparency is brought to the systems in MCA.
By 2047, Sitharaman said, India needs to be a developed country as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This vision can only be realised if timely modernisation of the systems and processes take place. The Union Finance Minister said that today is the era of governance, and therefore MCA's driving principle should be to make governance easy, transparent and with focus on facilitation. MCA must strive to be futuristic to be able to serve stakeholders in a time-bound manner.
Sitharaman stated that the MCA has taken out frequent and required amendments in The Act and Rules to keep up with changing times, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board is one such example of a reform-driven law. This is done to ensure that the systems are responsive to the needs of today’s India.
The FM credited Indian corporate governance for gaining the trust of citizens by providing transparent financial information. The Union Finance Minister emphasised the importance of MCA’s role in guiding and regulating companies to ensure their governance structures are well-managed.
As a way forward, the Union Finance Minister exhorted the MCA officials to find effective ways to convey legal requirements to stakeholders and also suggested holding frequent in house discussions to suggest measures for enhancing EODB, In his address during the interaction, Malhotra said that MCA must follow the motto of maximum governance and minimum government, as guided by the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Malhotra stated that MCA must conduct exercise to rationalise and reduce the forms vis-avis compliance burden on people. He suggested that frequent interactions with stakeholders will help to resolve issues in time. He also suggested that MCA can explore to host a corpus of electronic guidance in the form of videos and presentations to help stakeholders further. Malhotra also laid emphasis on time bound processes to benefit the end beneficiary.
