ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan here on Tuesday announced yet another concession to the companies other than listed companies which defaulted on timely submission of their returns under the company law to encourage them to regularize themselves.

This is in addition to the exemption from default given to such companies under the Companies Regularization Scheme by the SECP earlier this year.

According to the announcement, the Commission had decided that all companies, except listed companies, which will file their statutory returns up to December 31, 2002, without additional fee, would be absolved of any liability from the default in filing such returns within the prescribed period.

The Companies Ordinance, 1984, requires all companies to file certain reports and returns with the Registrar of Companies within a period specified in the Ordinance along with a filing fee amounting to Rs200 per return. The record of such returns is maintained by the Registrar as public documents available for inspection.

The Ordinance, an SECP official explained, further provides that where any documents required or authorized to be filed within the Registrar within a specified period is presented after the expiry of prescribed period, the Registrar may, on payment of three times the amount of specified fee i.e. Rs600, accept such documents.

There is, however, a provision in Section 469 of the Ordinance, which states that the acceptance of a document filed with the Registrar after the expiry of prescribed period shall not absolve the defaulting company or other persons concerned of any liability arising from the default.

The SECP, in order to facilitate companies which were on the defaulters’ list due to non-compliance with any of the statutory provisions of the Companies Ordinance, launched the Companies Regularisation Scheme under which companies which submitted the overdue statutory returns with one additional fee, were given a concession by excluding them from the defaulters’ list.

In keeping with the spirit of scheme, the SECP has now provided a further facility to defaulting companies, the source stated.