On 25th February 2021, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs(MCA) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) for data exchange between the two organisations.
The MoU was signed by Manoj Pandey, Joint Secretary, MCA, and B. B. Gupta, ADG, CBIC.
Key People:
Rajesh Verma, Secretary of MCA and M. Ajit Kumar, Chairman of CBIC were present during the signing of the MoU.
Objective:
The MoU will ease the sharing of data and information between MCA and CBIC on an automatic and regular basis for enhancing the ease of doing business in India.
Note – India Ranked 63 in the 17th edition of WB report тАШEase of Doing Business 2020-Comparing Business Regulation in 190 EconomiesтАЩ report, New Zealand placed at the top.
Features of the MoU:
i.The MoU is in line with the vision of both the organisations, to harness data capabilities to ensure effective enforcement.
ii.This will also enable the sharing of specific information like details of Bill of Entry (Imports), Shipping Bill (Exports) Summary from CBIC and financial statements filed with the Registrar by corporates, returns of allotment of shares.
iii.This MoU ensures the MCA and CBIC will have an uninterrupted linkage for the regulatory purposes.
iv.In addition to the data shared on a regular basis the MCA and CBIC will share data on the basis of request of any data available on the respective database.
Advantages:
i.The data sharing arrangement will benefit with the development of MCA21 version 3 which utilises the state of the art technology to enhance the ease of doing business in India and improve the regulatory enforcement and similar steps by CBIC like the launch of ADVAIT (Advanced Analytics in Indirect Taxation) a 360-degree taxpayer profiling tool.
ii.Under this MoU both the organisations will benefit through the access of each other’s database which includes details of import-export transactions and consolidated financial statements of companies registered in India.
Key Point:
i.The MoU came into force from the date of the signing and it is an ongoing initiative of MCA and CBIC.
ii.A Data Exchange Steering Group has been set up for the initiative. This group will meet periodically to review the data exchange status and will take measures to improve the effective data sharing mechanism.
About Ministry of Corporate Affairs:
Union Minister– Nirmala Sitharaman
Minister of State– Anurag Singh Thakur
About Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC):
Chairman- M. Ajit Kumar
Headquarters– New Delhi
