What is the Menace?

Coronavirus or in medical terms, better known as COVID-19, had been a large issue in all aspects. From domestic to business world, the issue has spread its wings to an extent that we all are forced to maintain social distancing and avoid interaction. This has forced many companies to ask the employees to work from home in isolation. This has led to so much trouble in the business of the companies and the progress has slowed down. CAR Form

At the disease is spreading, it is making more and more difficult for the people to somehow keep their livelihoods on track. There have been over 500 cases of COVID-19 in India. More than 140 countries have been affected and it has made difficult to contain the business with those countries and especially China. For the same, the MCA has released a CAR form for COVID-19 readiness of the companies. All the firms and LLP’s are supposed to fill and submit the CAR form or Company Affirmation of Readiness form that talks about the compliance of the company to start the initiative of work from home towards the COVID-19.

What is CAR Form?

The government of India has been taking initiatives to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Prime Minister himself has come live on the viewer’s screens to aware them about the menace and help them understand the severity of the situation. One of the measures taken by the Ministry of Corporate affairs is that it has asked all the companies to ask all the employees to work from home that is to take up the entire work of office to home.

For this, the Ministry has launched and unveiled a new-online based form to get the compliance with the measure taken to handle the progress of COVID-19. The same was released on March 23 and it was made available soon after that.

The MCA CAR (Company Affirmation of Readiness) Filing – COVID-19 also advised all the companies to implement the “Work From Home” policy in their headquarters and field offices to the maximum extent. This may include organising the meetings on online conference portals like video conference or through other computerized means. The notification that were sent out during the staggered times must be followed so that the physical interaction in minimised. Other preventive measures like the “Dos & Don’ts” should be followed as advised by public heath authorities.

Importance of the CAR Form

  • The corporate sector will be playing an important role in implementing certain decisions of social distancing which is important to stop the growth and spread of the virus.
  • Considering that most of the LLPs and companies are major employers in urban areas, it is important for them to follow all the guidelines of social distancing to ensure the controlled mobility of the virus. For the same, the companies and LLPs have to strictly follow the “Work From Home” policies.
  • The initiative is not a mandatory for all the companies but purely confidence building measure to assess the readiness of the companies to deal with COVID-19 Threat in India. Although the companies are suggested to do the same. There is no such penalties involved or enforcement related action applicable.

Features of CAR Form

The form is very simple and has the following features :

  • The form can be filled from any place and can be filed online.
  • There is no fee payment required for the same.
  • The applicant filling the form does not require filling with Digital Signature Certificate or DSC.
  • The form is available as a ‘Post-Login’ feature service for both ‘Registered’ and ‘Business User’ companies.
  • This form is applicable for all the Indian companies, or foreign enterprises or Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) or all the foreign LLPs.
  • Any person holding the current Authorized Signatories of the company or the LLP could fill and submit the form online.
  • There is only one verification requirement that is OTP verification.
  • There is no generation of SRN.
  • After filling the form, the acknowledgement would be sent to the email IDs of the applicant of the respective Company or LLP or foreign company or LLP or the Authorized signatory who provide the affirmation or the FO user who is submitting the affirmation.

Procedure to Fill the CAR Form :

  • Enter the CIN/FCRN/LLPN/FLLPN and click Pre-fill
  • The name of the Company or LLP would be automatically filled.
  • Check if Company/LLP is in compliance of MCA CAR Filing – COVID-19 guidelines and submitting the company’s acceptance of Work From Home policy.
  • The Authorized Signatory of the company who is providing the affirmation must have a valid DIN/PAN or Membership Number.
  • Enter DIN (only in the case of other Key Managerial Personnel) or PAN or Membership number and click on Pre-fill
  • All the details of the Director including Mobile number will be pre-filled automatically. [Where mobile number is not Pre-filled, the field shall be editable and mobile number can be entered by the user.]
  • Click on Send OTP
  • Enter the OTP and it will be verified.
  • Click on submit button to submit the form.

Conclusion

Stakeholders may at their convenience file this form,. it is purely voluntary as part of our contribution towards joining the movement to fight against the spread of the disease. Since the portal may experience heavy load, it would indicate ‘Busy’ alert whenever peak traffic is reached.