A formal communication to Ms Deepti Gaur Mukerjee, Secretary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), has been issued by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) concerning the operations of the MCA-21 V3 Portal.
ICSI in the communication has emphasised that the stakeholders are encountering issues and challenges at the time of submitting their annual returns because of technical errors in the MCA-21 V3 Portal, which leads to difficulties in compliance under the Companies Act, 2013.
Issues encountered by Stakeholders are illustrated below-
- Stakeholders during filing AOC-4 are encountering issues in generating the PDF version of forms post-submission. The system is exhibiting validation errors at the time of form processing. Often system downloads incorrect company forms.
- When stakeholders file the AOC-4 XBRL form, the system shows a message reading, “File Validation Failed,” suggesting that users contact the administrators. The system is not allowing the users to upload Form AOC-4 XBRL and Form CSR-2 for the FY 2024-25.
- Issues are encountered by the users while filing Form MGT-7, such as a wrong Excel file being uploaded, and failing to upload.
Professionals who have specified the common problems with the MCA-21 V3 Portal-
Frequent Slowdowns and Timeouts
- At the time of filing annual returns, the MCA-21 V3 Portal is facing frequent slowdowns, particularly in peak filing hours, i.e., between 3 PM and 8 PM. The deadline for MCA annual filings for FY 2024-25 is coming, and the portal is not operating seamlessly.
Inaccessible or Non-Responsive Website
- On multiple occasions, the MCA portal becomes non-functional, with users struggling to even load the homepage. Even when access is possible, the filing process is often disrupted by system errors, frequent timeouts, and unexpected site crashes.
There are additional issues beyond these, which are specified by professions, as noted by ICSI in its communication. ICSI, citing the issues highlighted by stakeholders, has requested that the MCA extend the deadline for annual filings for FY 2024-25 until December 31, 2025, due to technical issues in the MCA-21 V3 portal.
Major Issues, Challenges, and Stakeholder Concerns
