SECP revives company regularisation scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), in a bid to facilitate the corporate sector, has re-launched Companies Regularisation Scheme (CRS) and Companies Easy Exit Scheme (CEES) simultaneously.

“Both schemes shall remain operative for three months from July 1 to September 30,” the SECP announced on Thursday.

The SECP said the objective of these initiatives is to provide regularisation as well as exit facilities to defaulter companies at the same time. “Now these companies can either get their defaults of non-filing of documents regularised under CRS or avail the exit facility under CEES,” it said.

CRS provides defaulter companies an opportunity to file their overdue statutory returns and annual accounts.

Normally, the defaulting companies have to file their overdue returns with usual filing fee plus three-time additional fee and also face penal action for late filing of documents.

“This amnesty scheme shall, however, allow the companies to pay less fee and also absolve them of penal action for late submissions,” the SECP said.

CRS is applicable to all types of companies other than listed companies. Initially, in July, the overdue documents can be filed with normal filing fee plus one half of the normal filing fee as additional fee. However, the fee will increase in August to normal filing fee plus one time additional filing fee and in September to normal filing fee plus two times additional filing fee.

However, the SECP said the facility of filing through eServices will not be available for returns and documents filed under CRS which will be filed physically, as a series of documents cannot be filed through eServices.

CEES, on the other hand, allows the companies having no assets or liabilities and not carrying on any business, to avail easy exit facility without undergoing the cumbersome winding up procedure.

The SECP said this scheme is applicable to private and public unlisted companies. The application fees are less in July, but it will increase gradually during the remaining period of the scheme.

Special counters have been established for the schemes in order to facilitate the corporate sector, the SECP said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2010.