The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has announced the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026 (CCFS‑2026), offering a 90% waiver on additional ROC filing fees for pending forms like AOC‑4 and MGT‑7 for a limited window from 15 April 2026 to 15 July 2026. On paper, it looks like a generous “fresh start” for defaulting companies, but in reality the scheme is almost meaningless for companies that never got their financial statements audited and signed in the first place.
What CCFS‑2026 Actually Gives
- Waiver of 90% of additional (late) fees on specified pending ROC filings; companies pay normal fee plus only 10% of accumulated additional fee.
- One‑time, three‑month window to clear historical non‑filings and regularise status without paying crippling late fees.
This benefit assumes one basic thing: that your balance sheet and financial statements for those years were duly audited, signed and approved in time, and only the filing was delayed.
The Core Problem: No Signed Balance Sheet, No Real Relief
For a large set of defaulters, the problem is not just delayed ROC filing. The real default is much deeper:
- Financial statements were never prepared, audited and signed for past years.
- AGMs for those years were either never held, or were held without valid audited financials.
Under the Companies Act, the proper sequence is clear:
board approval of accounts → audit and signing of financials → adoption by members at AGM → ROC filings (AOC‑4, MGT‑7, etc.).
If this chain itself is broken, a fee waiver on filings does not cure the core non‑compliance.
UDIN and Back‑Dating: The Legal Dead End
ICAI’s UDIN guidelines require that a UDIN be generated at the time of signing or within a prescribed period (presently 60 days), and do not permit true back‑dated authentication of old, unsigned financial statements years later. That means:
- You cannot today “pretend” that an audit report was signed three years ago and then simply generate a UDIN as if it existed then.
- Any attempt to backdate signatures or fabricate historical audit dates squarely violates both law and professional ethics.
So, for a company that never got its balance sheet signed for, say, FY 2019‑20 or 2020‑21, CCFS‑2026 does not magically make it legal to now sign those accounts as if they were approved and audited on time. The scheme relaxes fees, not the statutory timelines, not the AGM requirements, and certainly not the UDIN framework.
AGM Cannot Be “Done in Back Date”
Once the statutory AGM due date is long over, you cannot legally “hold” an AGM in back date just to fit the old financial year’s timeline. The correct position in such cases is:
- The company has already defaulted in holding AGM and in laying audited financials before members within time.
- This default can be addressed only through proper compounding/condonation procedures before the competent authority, not by creative backdating.
If you now prepare and sign old financials today, the AGM (if held) will also be held today, and the audit report will also be dated today. That does not erase the past default; it only stops the non‑compliance from continuing further.
Why the Scheme Is Practically Useless for “Non‑Signed” Years
Put these legal and professional constraints together and the picture is clear:
- CCFS‑2026 helps only where accounts were properly audited and AGMs were held, but ROC filings were delayed and attracted huge additional fees.
- For companies where even the basic work of getting the balance sheet audited and signed was never done, the scheme does not solve the real problem.
- They still need:
- to get old financials prepared and audited now, with current‑date reports and UDIN;
- to regularise delayed AGMs and related defaults through compounding/condonation;
- and only then think about using the fee waiver window for filings, if at all applicable.
In short, for such chronic defaulters, the 90% late‑fee waiver is just a headline number. The real pain lies in substantive non‑compliance, which CCFS‑2026 does not and cannot fix. For any company that never got the balance sheet signed in the relevant years, this “relief” scheme is, in practical terms, nothing more than a mirage.
FCA, CWM (AAFM-US), CBV, CIFRS, R-ID, B.COM (H), RV* (IBBI)
Practising Chartered Accountant in Delhi NCR Since 2011. He can be contacted at ankitgulgulia@gmail.com or +91-9811653975.