THE UNION Government’s much-publicised ‘MCA 21’ project, under the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA), is facing teething trouble in Uttar Pradesh.
Under the project, the ministry put all the business processes and services of the office of Registrar of Companies (RoC) on the national e-Governance platform. The project involves electronic submission and administration of all documents put forward by various entities for registration of new companies, or other business entities to the RoC in any State.
A ‘Professional Front Office’ (PFC) was specially created by the ministry in March 24, 2006 for operating under the RoC headquarters in Kanpur. Ever since, chartered accountants—the authorised intermediaries under the “MCA 21” project—had been complaining of a host of problems in filing documents and timely receipt of electronic certifications..
“The MCA database on registered companies available online had not been updated for the past two years. It is impossible for any applicant to verify an already existing name of a company from a database for ensuring that such names are not requested for registration of a new company with the RoC,” Raj Kapoor, chairman of the Lucknow Regional Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), told Hindustan Times.
He said that the award of certifications for documents filed electronically by companies with the PFC is taking a minimum of 15 to 20 days. This, in the normal course, took only a week’s time, when documents were being filed physically by the applicants in the State.
{{/usCountry}}He said that the award of certifications for documents filed electronically by companies with the PFC is taking a minimum of 15 to 20 days. This, in the normal course, took only a week’s time, when documents were being filed physically by the applicants in the State.
{{/usCountry}}“In fact, the PFC is still accepting physical documents from the clients in many cases,” he said. There had been only 40 per cent scanning of the company records for digitisation, which should have been completed by May this year.
The ministry had set a deadline of September 15 for accepting digital signatures from the persons filing their documents with the RoC, he said.
However, K L Kamboj, Registrar of Companies, UP State, when contacted, said:
“The various applicants filing their documents with the RoC could approach me directly to discuss their problems for speedy redress at all levels.”
The ‘MCA 21’ is a new initiative and problems are bound to crop up at times at the operational level. The work of digitisation of physical documents is moving at a fast pace at the RoC office in Kanpur,” he said.
“The RoC, UP State, would hold a training programme on September 2 in Dehradun for all those persons required to file documents electronically under the MCA 21 project. A similar training programme was held in Kanpur on August 5, 2006”, he said.