The Corporate Affairs Ministry has been taking various measures to further improve the ease of doing business in the country

In a significant step towards improving the ease of doing business, the Corporate Affairs Ministry will soon centralise the whole process related to registering a new company and strive to complete the processing within a day.

The Central Registration Centre (CRC) to speed up services for incorporation of companies, set up by the Corporate Affairs Ministry, is already functional.

The Ministry, which is implementing the Companies Act, has been taking various measures to further improve the ease of doing business in the country, a priority of the current government.

Continuing the efforts, CRC would now carry out the processing and disposal of e-forms and all related matters pertaining to registration of companies.

Once the new system comes into effect from March 28, the works pertaining to incorporation of firms done by respective Registrar of Companies (RoCs) would be carried out by CRC.

"The CRC shall process forms pertaining to registration of companies e-forms (INC 2, 7 and 29 along with linked forms INC 22, DIR 12 and URC 1 and any other forms as may be notified by the central government) filed along with the prescribed fee as provided in the Companies (Registration of Offices and Rules) Rules, 2014," the Ministry said in a notification on Wednesday.

The jurisdiction, processing and approval of names proposed in e-form INC 29 "hitherto exercised by the respective RoC having jurisdiction over incorporation of companies would be forthwith be exercised by registrar of CRC, it noted.

Besides, the Ministry is looking to ensure that companies are registered within a day.

For all other provisions related to the Act, the RoC where the entity is registered would be responsible, the notification said.

Apart from providing timely approvals, CRC would help ensure uniformity in application of rules and do away with discretion.

CRC was launched with the specific objective of providing speedy incorporation-related services within stipulated time-frames which are in line with international best practices.

"In the first phase, CRC will process applications for name availability (INC-1 e-forms) submitted online across the country and endeavour to process these by the end of next working day," the Ministry had said in a release in January.

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