Users complain about MCA-21 website slow down

MUMBAI, INDIA: After the switchover of the MCA-21 project from TCS to Infosys on January 17, the critical government website has slowed down drastically.

The crippled website is creating a lot of inconvenience among new and existing companies. While existing companies cannot upload mandatory information online, new companies have not been able to get off the ground.

Lenders too, have not been able to disburse loans as they cannot specify assets that will be used as collateral.

The portal which comes under the supervision of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is largely accessed by chartered accountants, lenders and shareholders.

Through this government website, financial details of 8.5 lakh registered Indian companies can be accessed as this portal is widely used to file statutory information online with the registrar of companies (RoC).

All companies have to mandatorily incorporate as well as file information online.

On January 17, 2013, Infosys, took charge of the portal from TCS. TCS was associated with MCA 21 since 2005 and had won the contract as part of India's first Mission Model Project of the National e-Governance Plan.

"There are transitional issues. We are keeping a close watch and discussing the same with Infosys officials," an Economic Times report quoted MCA Secretary Naved Masood, as saying.

"The system has substantially improved in the last few days. On Monday, there were about 14,000 filings. Figures for Tuesday are not available at this moment. The login has begun but since the queue is long, the system is not responding adequately. We expect the system to normalise in the next 3-4 days," added Masood.

As per a press release issued by TCS, during the handover of the project, the website has 6.2 lakh registered users. In 2012, the MCA-21 saw peak filings of 88,000 a day.

The project was initiated to enable electronic filing of documents, registration of companies and public access to corporate information online through a secure interactive portal. The project aimed at automating all processes related to enforcement and compliance with legal requirements under the Companies Act.