New firms sprout in pandemic

NEW DELHI: The number of new companies formed in the current financial year rose despite the pandemic as data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) shows that incorporation of companies increased by 20.56% in FY 2020-21 as of December.

A total of over 1.13 lakh companies were incorporated during April 2020 to December 2020, against 93,754 companies during the same period of the last financial year, said the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur.

Further, outlining the steps taken by the government to help and support the companies incorporated he said that the "Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020" was launched to make a fresh start for companies to be a fully compliant company by allowing them to file belated documents in MCA-21 Registry without any additional fees from April 1 to December 31, 2020.

The said scheme has also given immunity from prosecutions and proceedings for imposition of penalty which might arise on account of such delayed filing of documents.