ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: With a view to further streamlining the working of companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission. of Pakistan ) SEC) has decided that companies who will file their statutory returns up to Dec 31 without additional fee, would be absolved of any liability arising from the default in filing such returns within the prescribed period.
The Companies Ordinance, 1984 requires all companies to file certain reports and returns with the Registrar of Companies Within a period specified in the Ordinance along with a filing fee amounting to Rs200 per return.
Record of such returns is maintained by the Registrar as public documents available for inspection. The Ordinance further provides that where any documents required or authorised to be filed with the Registrar within a specified period is presented after the expiry of such period, the Registrar may, on payment of three times the amount of specified fee i.e. Rs600, accept such documents.
It has, however, been provided in Section 469 of the Ordinance that the acceptance of a document filed with the Registrar after the expiry of pre scribed period shall not absolve the defaulting company or other persons concerned of any liability arising from the default.
The SEC, with a view to encourage and facilitate companies which were on the defaulters’ list due to non-compliance with any of the statutory provisions of the Companies Ordinance, recently launched the Companies Regularisation Scheme under which companies which submitted the over due statutory returns with one additional fee, were given a concession by excluding them from the defaulters’ list.
Keeping with the spirit of this scheme, the SEC has provided a further facility to defaulting companies.
