Centre to scrutinise companies that haven't filed online KYC details

NEW DELHI: The Centre will soon begin scrutinising companies that have not filed online Know Your Customer (KYC) details, including photographs of the registered office and directors, as New Delhi seeks to crack down on shell companies and plug tax sieves.

" We want to clear our registry (of shell companies and dormant companies)," said a senior government official.

The "Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification (ACTIVE)" form requires companies to upload a photograph of the external facade of their registered office with a board displaying the company name, corporate identity number, address of the entity, email, geographical location and phone number.


The official said that almost 7 lakh companies out of the 11.5 lakh registered in the country had completed the filings.

"Based on some internal criteria, non-compliant companies will be subject to detailed scrutiny. The criteria will be based on the red flags of the joint task force," said the official.

The government expected another 1.5 lakh companies to complete filing the KYC forms within the next month.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has deleted more than 3.4 lakh companies from the register in the past three fiscal years.

The companies that file the KYC after the deadline of June 15 will be charged a late filing fee of Rs 10,000. The MCA had initially set April 25 as the last date for filing but extended the deadline after receiving representations from industry, which had sought more time to comply with filing requirements.