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BENGALURU: The problem with the corporate affairs ministry’s portal MCA21 is not restricted to the inability to upload filings. Access to documents is becoming difficult too, users of the portal say.
Shravani Joshi, a company law expert working at Bengaluru-based equity management firm RuleZero, says she and her colleagues are unable to access updated documents on the portal. “We are not able to get filings after November 2022. Since we are into market intelligence, it affects our ability to analyse companies. If the company we are analysing is our client, we can ask them for updated data. But if they are not, it becomes a problem,” says Joshi.
For company secretary Srivani Tyarla, work is impacted because she is unable to conduct due diligence and audit for her clients due to lack of data. She says an audit that needs to be conducted by the company secretary during a fundraise or other transactions is not happening as efficiently as it ought to be. “When we draw data from MCA21, it is authenticated. But when we approach a company, there is no way to verify that data. So now, we are giving a disclaimer that the data has not been authenticated from the MCA21 filings,” says Tyarla.
Professionals have been facing problems with the MCA21 for a year now. The problems began when MCA and LTIMindtree moved to a new version of the portal, called Version 3 (or V3). Initially, the new version was operational for limited liability partnership companies. But earlier this year, it was opened up for all firms.
Jigar Shah, a company secretary, says the new version of the MCA portal is not enabled to allow public inspection of documents. “It is the job of the registrar of companies to make it available. But only what was filed under V2 is available to us. Clients like banks and foreign investors are suffering as they are not able to authenticate any company’s financials,” Shah says. For historical data up to about a year ago, Shah and his colleagues are having to use their V2 login to access documents.
Some of these professionals say that even after raising complaints on the issue, there has been no resolution. LTIMindtree, which maintains the portal, did not respond to TOI’s queries.
TOI has for months been reporting about the problems users have been facing in filing mandatory corporate forms. The finance ministry has been assuring companies that glitches would be resolved, but little has changed. The corporate affairs ministry has started conducting meetings with stakeholders such as chartered accountants & company secretaries and LTIMindtree to sort out the issue.
Shravani Joshi, a company law expert working at Bengaluru-based equity management firm RuleZero, says she and her colleagues are unable to access updated documents on the portal. “We are not able to get filings after November 2022. Since we are into market intelligence, it affects our ability to analyse companies. If the company we are analysing is our client, we can ask them for updated data. But if they are not, it becomes a problem,” says Joshi.
For company secretary Srivani Tyarla, work is impacted because she is unable to conduct due diligence and audit for her clients due to lack of data. She says an audit that needs to be conducted by the company secretary during a fundraise or other transactions is not happening as efficiently as it ought to be. “When we draw data from MCA21, it is authenticated. But when we approach a company, there is no way to verify that data. So now, we are giving a disclaimer that the data has not been authenticated from the MCA21 filings,” says Tyarla.
Professionals have been facing problems with the MCA21 for a year now. The problems began when MCA and LTIMindtree moved to a new version of the portal, called Version 3 (or V3). Initially, the new version was operational for limited liability partnership companies. But earlier this year, it was opened up for all firms.
Jigar Shah, a company secretary, says the new version of the MCA portal is not enabled to allow public inspection of documents. “It is the job of the registrar of companies to make it available. But only what was filed under V2 is available to us. Clients like banks and foreign investors are suffering as they are not able to authenticate any company’s financials,” Shah says. For historical data up to about a year ago, Shah and his colleagues are having to use their V2 login to access documents.
Some of these professionals say that even after raising complaints on the issue, there has been no resolution. LTIMindtree, which maintains the portal, did not respond to TOI’s queries.
TOI has for months been reporting about the problems users have been facing in filing mandatory corporate forms. The finance ministry has been assuring companies that glitches would be resolved, but little has changed. The corporate affairs ministry has started conducting meetings with stakeholders such as chartered accountants & company secretaries and LTIMindtree to sort out the issue.
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