If your company has annual filings sitting undone — one year, three years, or a decade — you are currently accruing additional fees of ₹100 per day, per form, with no upper limit.
There is a window to clear that at roughly a tenth of the cost, and it shuts on 31 August 2026.
What the scheme does
The Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026 (CCFS-2026) allows companies to complete pending annual filings by paying the normal statutory fee plus only 10% of the additional fee that would otherwise apply.
The scheme has been in force since 15 April 2026 under MCA General Circular No. 01/2026 dated 24 February 2026. It was originally due to close on 15 July and was extended to 31 August 2026 by General Circular No. 03/2026 dated 8 July 2026.
What that saves, in actual money
The additional fee is ₹100 per day per form, with no cap. It adds up faster than most directors expect.
Take a company that has not filed AOC-4 or MGT-7 for FY 2022-23 — roughly three years late:
| Normally | Under CCFS-2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Additional fee, AOC-4 (≈1,095 days) | ₹1,09,500 | ₹10,950 |
| Additional fee, MGT-7 (≈1,095 days) | ₹1,09,500 | ₹10,950 |
| Additional fees, one year of filings | ₹2,19,000 | ₹21,900 |
Normal filing fees and professional fees apply on top in both columns. But the additional fee — the part that has been quietly compounding at ₹200 a day across two forms — drops by ninety percent.
For a company three years behind on filings, the saving frequently runs into several lakh rupees. Work out your own number with our ROC due date and late fee calculator — it takes about thirty seconds.
Which forms are covered
The scheme covers pending annual filings, including:
- MGT-7 and MGT-7A — annual return
- The AOC-4 series — AOC-4, AOC-4 CFS, AOC-4 XBRL, AOC-4 Non-XBRL
- ADT-1 — appointment of auditor
- FC-3 and FC-4 — for foreign companies
- The corresponding forms under the Companies Act, 1956
The other two options
CCFS-2026 is not only for companies that intend to keep trading. There are three routes, and the right one depends on what you actually want the company to do.
1. Catch up. File the pending forms at normal fees plus 10% of the additional fees. For a company that is trading, or holds assets, or that you may want to sell or raise on later, this is almost always right.
2. Go dormant. Apply for dormant status under Section 455 by filing MSC-1 at half the normal filing fee. Suitable where the company is not trading now but you want to keep it alive. Dormant status still carries a lighter annual compliance burden, so it is not zero-maintenance.
3. Strike it off. Apply for removal of the company’s name by filing STK-2 at 25% of the applicable filing fee. Right where the company is genuinely finished and you want to stop the compliance clock permanently.
Many directors carrying a defunct company from an old venture spend years paying to keep it half-alive. If that describes you, option 3 under this scheme is unusually cheap. It closes on the same date.
Immunity from prosecution
The fee reduction is the visible benefit. The immunity is arguably the more important one.
Where filings are made under the scheme:
- If the filing is made before an adjudicating officer issues a notice, or within 30 days of such a notice, proceedings are concluded and no penalty is levied.
- In other cases, immunity against prospective penal action is available, provided no prosecution has been filed and no adjudication proceedings have been initiated by issue of a show cause notice before the filing.
The direction of travel is clear: file before a notice arrives, and you are in a far stronger position than if you file after one.
Two things people get wrong
“I will do it in the last week.” The forms are filed on the MCA V3 portal, and V2 is now disabled. If you have not filed since the migration, you may find your DSC needs re-registering, your DIN details need updating, or your login does not behave as expected — none of which is difficult, all of which takes days you may not have. And every professional in the country is filing in the last week of August. The portal is at its least cooperative precisely then.
“I do not have the accounts.” You cannot file AOC-4 without financial statements adopted at a general meeting, and you cannot hold that meeting without an auditor’s report. If several years are outstanding, the accounting and audit work sits ahead of the filing, and it is the long pole. Starting on 25 August is not starting.
What to do this week
- Find out what is actually outstanding. Check the company’s master data on the MCA portal, or ask us. It is common for directors to be wrong by a year in either direction.
- Work out what it costs both ways — under the scheme and after it. Our late fee calculator gives you the number.
- Decide which of the three routes fits. Catch up, dormant, or strike off. They cost very different amounts and have very different consequences.
- Start the accounting and audit work now if accounts are not adopted. This is the step that will run out of road.
We will tell you what you owe, free
Send us your CIN and we will confirm what is outstanding, what it costs under CCFS-2026, and what it will cost after 31 August. No charge, no obligation, and you get the number in writing.
If you decide to proceed, our published rates apply — AOC-4 and MGT-7 prepared, validated and filed from ₹3,500, XBRL conversion from ₹3,999, reviewed by a qualified professional before anything goes to the MCA.
Send your CIN → · Work out your late fees → · Or call +91 92898 96117, Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 19:00.
This post is general information, not professional advice for your company. Scheme terms and dates are as notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and are subject to change — verify the current position before acting. Whether the scheme applies to your company, and which route suits it, depends on facts we would need to see.
