Corporate professionals and other stakeholders have urged the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to extend the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026 (CCFS-2026) until September 30, citing persistent technical difficulties on the BharatKosh payment portal and the continuing impact of the fire at the MCA data centre.
The scheme’s extended validity ended on August 31, 2026. Stakeholders have contended that companies should not lose the benefit of the one-time compliance window because of technical problems beyond their control, particularly when government systems connected with filing and payment processes remain under restoration or upgradation.
Buy Now: 70+ Judgements Indirect Tax – July 2026 | E-Magazine
Users have reported frequent unavailability and payment-related difficulties on BharatKosh, affecting their ability to complete time-sensitive transactions. The portal itself carries an advisory stating that it is undergoing technical upgradation activities from August 7 to September 28, 2026, and regrets any inconvenience caused during the period.
Against this background, professionals have requested MCA to extend CCFS-2026 until September 30—two days after the scheduled completion of BharatKosh’s technical upgradation. They have also sought urgent improvement and stabilisation of the payment portal so that companies can complete their filings and associated payments without repeated failures.
CCFS Deadline Earlier Extended After Data-Centre Fire
CCFS-2026 was originally available from April 15 to July 15, 2026. MCA subsequently extended the scheme until August 31 through General Circular No. 03/2026 dated July 8, 2026.
The earlier extension was granted in view of capacity enhancement and restoration work following a fire at the MCA data centre on June 5. The incident required the Ministry to activate its disaster-recovery arrangements and undertake restoration, synchronisation and capacity-augmentation activities.
MCA had also acknowledged the incident through service advisories and announced temporary downtime for capacity enhancement. It subsequently granted relief relating to approved name reservations, resubmission of e-forms and certain statutory filings.
The government later informed Parliament that core statutory filing and incorporation services had been restored within the stipulated recovery period and that no application data was lost. It nevertheless acknowledged that certain ancillary systems required additional synchronisation, validation and recovery.
Why CCFS-2026 Is Important
CCFS-2026 provides a one-time opportunity to eligible defaulting companies to regularise specified pending filings under the Companies Act. Companies filing eligible overdue annual returns, financial statements and other prescribed forms are required to pay the normal filing fee together with only 10% of the otherwise applicable additional fee.
The scheme therefore effectively offers relief of up to 90% from accumulated additional filing fees. It is especially significant for companies with defaults extending over several years, since the ordinary additional fee on certain filings can accumulate at ₹100 per day without an upper limit.
The scheme also provides concessional routes for eligible inactive companies seeking dormant status or voluntary strike-off. Consequently, failure to complete the prescribed process before the closing date could expose companies to substantially higher fees and continued non-compliance.
Stakeholders Seek Technology-Neutral Relief
Professionals have argued that a compliance-relief scheme can achieve its objective only when the supporting filing and payment infrastructure remains consistently accessible. Portal outages, failed transactions, delayed payment confirmations and difficulty tracking payments can prevent stakeholders from completing a filing even where the relevant documents have been prepared in time.
The BharatKosh response-status page itself advises users to check whether their bank accounts have been debited before attempting another transaction, warning against duplicate payments while a transaction’s status remains uncertain.
Stakeholders have therefore appealed to @MCA21India to provide an additional month and keep CCFS-2026 operational until September 30. They have also requested that no company be deprived of the scheme’s concessional benefits where an attempted filing or payment could not be completed because of documented portal-related problems.
As of August 31, no official circular granting a further extension beyond that date had been announced. Any extension will require a formal communication from MCA. Until such an announcement is issued, the demand for extension remains a stakeholder representation and does not alter the notified deadline.
