Cos registration down after PAN made compulsory

KATHMANDU, OCT 10 - Fewer companies were registered with the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) after the government made it mandatory for them to obtain a permanent account number ( PAN ) first.

Registrations of both private and public limited companies were down in the last fiscal year. According to the OCR, 10,061 private limited companies were registered in fiscal 2013-14, down 5 percent from 10,694 in fiscal 2012-13.

Likewise, the number of public limited companies decreased to 26 last year from 38 in the previous fiscal. However, the registration of companies not distributing profits has increased. While only 83 such companies were registered in the previous fiscal, there were 04 in fiscal 2013-14.

According to Shankar Aryal, registrar at the OCR, the registration of companies went down due to the government provision that companies should possess a PAN to be registered.

“Registrations of companies especially under the miscellaneous category went down,” said Aryal. “And this is because of the mandatory government provision that a company needs to obtain a PAN . Many companies are now operating by acquiring a PAN card.”

Meanwhile, the number of companies getting registered online has reached around 120,000. Since October 2013, the OCR has been registering companies only through the internet.

In October, 2012, the OCR introduced online registration of companies and the service was officially launched on February 8, 2013. Online registration was made mandatory in October the same year.

People can get tasks such as registration, dissolution and other administrative work done through the internet.

They can visit the OCR’s web site www.ocr.gov.np and do most of the tasks online eliminating the need to travel to its office physically.

Similarly, in the fiscal year 2013-14, a total of 317 companies were terminated, 18 companies were merged, 457 changed their names, 916 changed their addresses and 370 added branch offices. In the fiscal year 2012-13, the figures stood at 202, 27, 558, 1,174 and 435 respectively.

After implementing the online registration system, the OCR has asked the government for skilled human resources to effectively implement it.

“Lack of skilled human resource, making online registration reliable and long lasting and restructuring of the OCR are some of the crucial issues that need to be addressed at the earliest possible,” said Aryal. “We have already requested the Ministry of Industry to deal with this matter.”

The usually bustling office building of the OCR at Tripureshwor is almost deserted these days following the introduction of the online registration system.

In order to complete the registration process, company representatives need to make a one-time visit to the OCR office or the district office of the Department of Cottage and Small Industries in Lalitpur to pay the registration charges and register their official signatures as digital signatures have not yet been recognized in the country.

International Finance Corporation has been supporting the implementation of the online registration system.