In order to help the Government of India’s new initiative of “Ease of doing business” (EODB), a new web form by the name of SPICe+ has been introduced by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by replacing the existing SPICe form.
Three of the Central Government Ministries and Department, namely, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labour & Department of Revenuein the Ministry of Finance and two of the State Governments, namely Maharashtra and Karnataka, related 11 services are being offered under SPICe+. This will help in saving the time as well as procedures and cost which is levied on starting a new Business in India. It is applicable to all those newly incorporated companies which has been effective from February 23, 2020.
The features of the new SPICe+ platform are:
1. The new SPICe+ is an integrated Web Form.
2. The SPICe+ has been divided into two parts:
· PART A: for the purposes of name reservation of the new companies
· PART B: for the purpose of offering a variety of services, namely:
o Incorporation
o Allotment of DIN
o Mandatory issuance of PAN
o Mandatory issuance of TAN
o Mandatory issuance of EPFO registration
o Mandatory issuance of ESIC registration
o Mandatory issuance of Profession Tax registration but only for Maharashtra and Karnataka
o Mandatory Opening of Bank Account in the name of the Company
o Allotment of GSTIN in case it has been applied for
3. The users have two options to go about it, first the can either file the Part A and reserve the name of the company that they want and after that submit for Part B in order to get the incorporation and the various other services or what they can do is file both Part A as well Part B together and enjoy the bouquet of services which this new platform offers.
4. For all the Company Incorporation applications a new as well as user friendly Dashboard has been created at the Front Office along with the SPICe+ and other linked forms.
5. The Part B which is the incorporation application can be filed just after the Part A which is for name registration. It is more of a seamless process and can be done in continuation of the Part A of the SPICe+. The best part is that the stakeholders are not even required to enter the SRN of the approved name, since the name is already as well as prominently displayed on the dashboard. A simple click on the same will automatically guide the users to the continuation of the application procedure with the help of a hyperlink which is available on the either the SRN or the Application number on the Dashboard.
6. In case the applicants want to resubmit their application either for the reservation of the company name or the incorporation process, then the same can be easily handled with the application number or the name that was applied for with the link available on the Dashboard.
7. With effect from February 23, 2020 the RUN services will only be applicable in case of “Change of Name” for the already existing Companies.
8. This new web form also facilitates the On Screen Filing as well as the Real Time Data Validation in order to provide smooth incorporation of the companies.
9. All the incorporation details as well as the company name (approved) which will be provided for the purpose of Part A, will then be auto filled in all the links of the subsequent forms such as the AGILE-PRO, eMoA, eAoA, URC1, INC-9 or whichever is applicable.
10. The SPICe+ has been divided into different sections so that the applicant feels at ease while filing.
11. An option to save as well as modify the entered information is provided.
12. The Check form as well as the Pre Scrutiny validation will happen on the web form only. Digital Signature Certificate validation is not included in this process.
13. As soon as all the required details are filled in the SPICe+ platform, you would have to convert the same in to a PDF format. This can be completed with a simple click of buttons and is important as DSC has to be affixed.
14. Next, you have to simply upload the signed application will all the linked forms. This is done as per the already existing process.
15. Even after the PDF file is generated and the DSC is attached to it, changes and modifications can be made to the SPICe+. You can do that by simply editing the web form application which you previously filled and saved, then generate another PDF and affix the DSC and upload the updated one.
16. All the types of validation such as the DSC will happen once you upload the application.
17. With effect from February 23, 2020 all newly incorporated companies will have to mandatorily register themselves under EPFO as well as ESIC. Neither the EPFO or the ESIC registration numbers will be issued by them separately.
18. For all the newly incorporated companies, it is important to get the Professional Tax Registration in the State of Maharashtra. This rule is effective from February 23, 2020 and for the newly incorporated companies in State of Karnataka the date for implementation is October 8, 2020.
19. Another mandatory condition for all the companies which are incorporate on or after February 23, 2020 is that the bank account which they have to open for the Company will have to be accessed through the AGILE PRO linked form available.
20. The declaration which has to be given by the first directors as well as all the Subscribers in the form INC 9 will also be auto generated in the PDS format. This form will then be submitted only in an electronic form in any of the case. The only two exceptions are:
i. Total number of subscribers and/or directors is greater than 20 and/or
ii. Any such subscribers and/or directors has neither DIN nor PAN
Initiatives taken by the Ministry towards Ease of Doing Business (Prior to Year 2020)
o In case of the Private Limited Companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had removed the requirement for the minimum paid up capital via the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015.
o The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has established the Central Registration Centre (CRC) as per the provisions of Section 396 of the Companies Act, 2013 through the notification released on January 22, 2016. The CRC was a part of the initiative of the Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) in order to make sure that speedy incorporation related services are provided which are in line with the best global practices.
o The CRC was established with a clear objective - name reserve demands and company inclusion requests must be processed and completed within D or D + 1 (D = date of confirmation of payment) days. During the first phase, the CRC processed requests for the availability of names using the electronic form INC-1. While in the second phase, the CRC initiated the processing of electronic forms for insertion.
o The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has announced a simple form (SPICe) for electronic company registration instead of INC-29. In addition, the ministry has combined the MCA21 system with CBDT for the purpose of issuing both PAN as well as TAN to all the companies which are registered using (SPICe). Stakeholders apply for PAN and TAN when applying for registration via SPICe. The PAN / TAN assigned by the Income Tax Office is stamped on the certificate of registration. Stakeholders also have the provision to apply for DIN (Director Identification Number) up to three directors via SPICe. This has reduced the number and time required to start a business in the country.
o After SPICe, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs alsolaunched a new simplified Reserve Unique Name (RUN) web service to reserve names on behalf of INC-1. It also eliminates the need to use a digital signature certificate (DSC) when reserving names. This was another added value to the ease of doing business in India.
o In addition, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has also amended the 2009 LLP Rules via the 2018 Limited Liability Partnership Rules (Second Amendment), the notification of which was sent on 18 September 2018 and entered into force on 2 October 2018. This amendment introduces Form RUN-LLP instead of Form 1 LLP to preserve the name and Form FiLLiP instead of Form 2 LLP for registration, previously LLPswere registered through the respective ROC. The process has now become centralized as part of keeping it abreast with companies and starting businesses in India.
o The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has amended the Rule 38 (2) of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 through a notification GSR no 180 (E) which was issued on March 6, 2019. With effect of this notification, all those companies whose authorized capital is less than Rs. 1500000 will be charged no fess by the. Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
o Earlier an affidavit had to be attached in order to give declaration, but now it has been made a part of the SPICe+ e form.
o The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has amended the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 and added the Rule 38 A, through a notification GSR no 275 (E) which was issued on March 29, 2019. With effect of this notification, a facility would be provided by including the MCA 21 system in terms of the registrations of the EPFO, ESIC as well as GST during the same time as the SPICe+ form is being filed for the purpose of incorporation.
o The Company's (Corporate) Fifth Amendment Rule, 2019, has been simplified by the MCA, with respect to the name availability rule. These revised rules provide enough examples to avoid any ambiguity that may occur in name reservation process. As a result, name rejection rates have been reduced as well as the approval times have been reduced. With this new method, greater speed, transparency, consistency as well as eradication of any discretion is now possible.
o The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has brought certain changes in the Section 8 which deals with the incorporation of companies. This amendment was brought via a notification no 411 (E) which was issued on June 7, 2019. According to this notification, the application which was supposed to be filed for license as well as incorporation of the respective companies will now be submitted via the e form INC 12 through the respective Registrar of Companies or the RDs who are now merged with the SPICe+ platform as well as been centralized. With the help of this amendment the time taken for incorporation of the companies through section 8 is now reduced. Visit for more details
