MCA Extends Annual Filing Deadline to Jan 31

In a major relief for companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), vide General Circular No. 08/2025 dated December 30, 2025, has extended the deadline for filing annual returns and financial statements pertaining to FY 2024-25 to January 31, 2026, without any additional fees.

The move follows multiple reports of technical glitches, frequent timeouts, and other portal-related issued faced by users in the days leading up to the previous deadline of December 31, 2025.

This relief extends to following e-Forms:

• MGT-7 – Annual return for companies other than OPCs and small companies
• MGT-7A – Abridged annual return for OPCs and small companies
• AOC-4 – Form for filing financial statement and other documents with the Registrar
• AOC-4 CFS – Consolidated financial statements
• AOC-4 NBFC (Ind AS) – Financial statements for NBFCs
• AOC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS) – Consolidated financial statements for NBFCs
• AOC-4 (XBRL) – Financial statement in XBRL format

Statutory Deadline and Transition of MCA21 Portal From V2 to V3

The Companies Act, 2013, envisages the filing of annual returns within 60 days of the AGM and financial statements within 30 days of the AGM. Notably, the deployment of revised e-Forms for these filings (part of the final set of 38 company forms) on the MCA-21 Version 3 portal on July 14, 2025, marking the complete transition from V2 to V3, affected filings in respect of FY 2024-25 (ending March 31, 2025).

Moreover, these e-Forms were temporarily unavailable for filing from June 18, 2025 to July 13, 2025 due to a scheduled system migration. In cases where the due date or resubmission date fell within this period, the MCA, vide General Circular No. 01/2025 dated June 16, 2025, had extended the deadline up to August 15, 2025, without the levy of any additional fees.

Previous Deadline Extension

In view of the deployment of the new e-Forms and considering that companies required additional time to get familiarised with the filing process, the MCA, through General Circular No. 06/2025 dated October 17, 2025, extended the deadline for annual filings pertaining to FY 2024-25 till December 31, 2025, without payment of additional fees. The deadline has now been further extended to January 31, 2026.

Key Points to Note

• These circulars are not be construed as granting any extension of the statutory time for holding AGMs under the Companies Act, 2013.
• Any filings made after January 31, 2026, will attract payment of all applicable fees, including additional fees, from the date on which such filings were actually due under the 2013 Act.