Directors to lose DINs for default on disclosure norms

New Delhi: The Director Identification Numbers, or DINs, of those on boards of companies who haven’t complied with certain disclosure norms by the 15 September deadline are being deactivated, the ministry of corporate affairs said today. Persons with deactivated DINs will be levied a fine of ₹ 5,000 for filing the mandatory know your customer (KYC) details after the due date. The fine does not mean the government will not take any further action against them for default.

A statement posted on the website of ministry of corporate affairs has warned that the process of deactivating non-compliant DINs is in progress and is likely to be completed by 17 September 2018. The statement did not mention the number of DINs being deactivated but a PTI report said it could be as high as 21 lakh out of 33 lakh active DINs.

The government requires the mobile number and any identification document among Aadhaar, driving licence, passport or election ID card for completing the KYC.

“Every director who has been allotted DIN on or before 31st March, 2018 and whose DIN is in ‘approved’ status, would be mandatorily required to file form DIR-3 KYC on or before 31 August 2018,” the ministry said in another communication posted on its website.

The move is part of a broader exercise of improving transparency in the corporate sector to prevent possible instances of fraud and tax evasion.

The ministry had last year struck off from records more than 226,000 companies for not filing annual returns for two or more years. It also disqualified three lakh directors on the board of such companies.

The KYC requirement is compulsory for disqualified directors too. Now, investigations are on into the real ownership of 68 companies that made suspicious deposits of ₹ 25 crore or more in banks after the November 2016 demonetisation of high value currencies.