Amendment in Form DPT-3

Vide MCA Notification dated January 22, 2019, there is an amendment in the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014 with regard to filing of e-Form DPT-3 relating to Return of Deposit.

As per the above said amendment, Annual Return in Form DPT-3 is required to be filed by all companies, except a Government Company, to provide disclosure of -

·         Deposits, and

·         Transactions not considered as deposits.

As per Rule 2 [1] [c], the definition of the term deposit is an inclusive definition, which included any receipt of money by way of deposit or loan or in any other form by a company.  The said definition of deposit also excluded certain transactions from the purview of the term deposit.

Prior to the above said amendment, the companies were required to give details regarding deposit received in e-Form DPT-3.    If any money was received by the company which was excluded from the definition of ‘deposit’, such company was not required to file e-Form DPT-3.

Now, after the amendment, every company, whether public or private, whether it has received any amount within the definition of ‘deposit’ or not (i.e. falling under the excluded categories), is required to file e-Form DPT-3.

Further, the Annual Return is required to be filed on or before 30^th June to furnish such details as on 31^st of March every year duly audited by the Auditor of the Company.

As you are aware, the companies are allowed to hold Annual General Meeting to consider and adopt its annual accounts till 30^th September (or any extension thereof) every year.  Hence the companies were in a position to complete its account audited till September.  However, the above requirement of filing e-Form DPT-3 mandates every company to audit it accounts well in advance, so as to file such audited figures on or before 30^th June.  Practically this may put some hardship / difficulty to most of the companies.  Probably we may expect some amendment to this amendment.

Apart from the Annual Return, every company other than Government Company is now required to file one-time return for disclosure of details of outstanding money or loan received by a company although not falling under the ambit of deposit as defined in the Rules as above.

This one-time return covering all such outstanding receipts of money or loans from April 1, 2014 to January 22, 2019 is required to be filed in Form DPT-3 on or before April 22, 2019.

In effect, for the year 2019, every company is now required to file e-Form DPT-3 on two occasions – One Time Return on or before 22^nd April, 2019 and the Annual Return on or before 30^th June 2019.  In the subsequent years, only Annual Return shall be filed.