MCA extends deadline up to January 31 for 2024-25 returns filings without extra fees

The corporate affairs ministry on Tuesday extended the deadline for companies to file their financial statements and annual returns for 2024-25 without additional fees by a month through January 31, acceding to requests by stakeholders.

This is the second extension—the first being in October--following complaints by stakeholders of technical problems in filing revised forms on the latest version, called V3, of the MCA21 portal.

The Institute of Companies Secretaries of India (ICAI) had earlier flagged the technical issues around such filings to the ministry and sought relief.


In fact, the V3 portal has drawn frequent criticism over technical glitches since its rollout in 2023 (for company filings), although some of the issues have since been resolved.

The latest issues stemmed from the fact that the ministry had in July introduced 38 new e-forms for corporate filings, mainly relating to financial statements and annual returns, on the V3 portal.

While granting the extension for the first time on October 17, the ministry had conceded that companies might require some time to get familiarized with the filing process following the introduction of new e-forms.

Seeking to replace the earlier V2 portal with a modern one, the ministry had in 2022 decided to introduce various forms for filing through the latest (V3) portal in phases to ensure a smooth migration.

The filing of 20 forms meant for limited liability partnerships was rolled out in March 2022. In August 2022, nine forms – relating to KYC (know your customer) of directors, charges and deposits – were introduced.

In January 2023, 56 forms relating to companies, including those for incorporation, were made available for filing on the V3 portal. This drew the highest attention, as stakeholders complained of frequent technical glitches. Subsequently, the ministry rolled out other e-forms for filings as well.