The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has extended the deadlines for companies to file their financial statements and annual returns for the financial year 2025-26 without paying additional fees, following stakeholder representations seeking more time to complete statutory filings.
In a circular dated October 24, the ministry stated that companies can file financial statements through various versions of Form AOC-4, including consolidated financial statements, filings for financial statements in XBRL (machine-readable digital reporting) format and applicable non-banking financial company (NBFC) forms, by December 31, 2026, without additional fees.
The deadline for filing annual returns through Forms MGT-7 and MGT-7A has been extended to January 31, 2027, the circular said.
AOC-4 forms are used to file companies' financial statements with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), with different variants covering consolidated financial statements, XBRL reporting and applicable NBFC filings. MGT-7 is used to file a company's annual return, while MGT-7A is the annual return form for one-person companies and small companies.
The extension comes amid concerns raised by company secretaries and other professionals over technical difficulties on the MCA-21 Version 3 portal. The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), in a representation dated October 9, sought an extension until December 31, 2026, without additional fees, citing recurring portal glitches and increased compliance requirements under revised filing forms.
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The MCA-21 Version 3 (V3) portal is the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ online platform through which companies submit statutory filings and access corporate registry and compliance services.
The ICSI, in its representation, mentioned frequent portal downtime and slow response times concerning the MCA portal, including session timeouts and automatic logouts during form preparation and filing, difficulties in logging in, profile updates and user access management, errors in pre-filled data and inconsistencies in data retrieval, challenges in associating Digital Signature Certificates (DSCs), form validation failures despite correct data entry, and difficulties in viewing, downloading and tracking filed forms and approvals.
“Where technical or operational issues affect the filing process, there is a possibility that some otherwise compliant entities may face difficulties in completing filings within the prescribed timelines. ICSI's representation seeks to ensure that genuine compliance efforts are not adversely impacted by transitional or technological challenges,” said Pawan G Chandak, president of ICSI, in response to a query from Business Standard.
However, the circular clarifies that the relaxation does not extend the statutory timelines for holding annual general meetings (AGMs).
Notably, the MCA granted two extensions for annual filings for FY 2024-25 last year, through circulars dated October 17, 2025, and December 30, 2025.