The Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, will take effect from August 1, the ministry said in the notification.
At present, directors are required to file their KYC with the MCA every year when they can update their mobile numbers and email IDs. Once the KYC is filed, the details can’t be changed until the next financial year.
The latest move brings “significant relief to professional directors who switch organizations mid-year or their organisations undergo global restructuring”, said Makarand M Joshi, founder partner at corporate compliance firm MMJC and Associates.
This is because these directors might have given their official mobile numbers or email IDs in the KYC forms, which will get blocked once they are relieved and they could update the details only in April next year, he said. Consequently, they would miss important communications from the MCA during the transition period until the details are updated, Joshi added.
Beneficial owner rules tweaked
In a separate notification, the ministry amended rules relating to the filing of details of beneficial owners of companies through the MGT 6 form.
This form is required to be filed by a company where the holder of the beneficial interest in its shares and the shareholder are different persons. This form is now revised through the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
A significant beneficial owner (SBO), Joshi said, “was always expected to be an individual but the holding of beneficial interest in shares was never expected to be always an individual”. In this context, the new MGT 6 version seems a “little confusing”, as now it “mandatorily asks for details of an individual person in case of filling up details of the beneficial owner”. “Due to this, there would be no difference between beneficial owner and significant beneficial owner,” Joshi added.
