In a series of webinars held during the last week of May, the GJEPC’s MSME department at the HO Mumbai organized interactive sessions with experts from government departments and private organisations to spread awareness on the different initiatives taken to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country deal with the challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second of the three sessions held on May 25 was addressed by Shri Manmohan Juneja, Regional Director (Western Region), Ministry of Corporate Affairs and focused on “Recent Reforms in the Companies Act 2013 & its Impact on the MSME Sector”, with Manish Jivani, GJEPC’s MSME Convener as special invitee. Saurabh Pramod Shah, Corporate Advisor and a Company Law Consultant was the Moderator and the webinar was hosted by Mithilesh Pandey, Director, MSME / Membership.

Key Takeaways

Recent reforms have been made in The Companies Act, 2013, The LLP Act and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code covering various issues such as Relaxation, Amendments, Fresh start, No penalties, Moratorium, Extension, etc.

With the focus of enhancing Ease of Doing Business (EODB), MCA21 Registry was added as Essential Services during COVID-19 lockdown period. With Work from Home being initiated, around 6000 e-Forms were registered during the lockdown period in the Western region.

A special bench was constituted for Mergers and Schemes. Over 200 schemes have been approved and another 150 are expected in next 20 days.

Simpler Insolvency regime for MSME under 240A of IBC expected to be issued shortly.

Many forms of various state and central ministries have been simplified for easier compliance

Key Relief Schemes such as Company Fresh Start Scheme, 2020 (CFSS); LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020; have been introduced.

Maximum gap permissible between two Board meetings has been extended and deadlines for AGMs, etc. relaxed, plus permission granted to hold virtual meetings.

Certain clarifications issued on CSR expenditure definitions

A number of other major relaxations relating to deadlines, fees and certain other procedural requirements have been provided to businesses

Threshold of default under section 4 of the IBC 2016 Raised to Rs 10 million (from Rs 0.1 million).

No initiation of fresh insolvency cases for up to one year

The minimum default threshold to initiate proceedings under IBC raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore

Steps taken by Government and Finance Ministry to boost MSMEs was also discussed. These have been done with the aim of enhancing business opportunities and their monetization.