Section 204, prescribes for preparation and submission of a Secretarial Audit Report from a Practicing Company Secretary duly appointed by the Board
Why Secretarial Audit for Companies?
- To Ensure Applicable laws are followed
- To Ensure Information to stakeholders, regulators and management about the company’s progress etc. are towards best governance
Scope of Secretarial Audit
Ensure compliance of applicable statues to entity, which includes:
- Companies Act, 2013
- Reserve Bank of India /Foreign Direct Investment Guidelines
- Foreign Exchange Management Act
- Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
- Environment and Labour Codes
- Securities and Contract Act / SEBI Guidelines
- Income Tax Act, 1961 and Goods, and Service Tax, 2017
- Employee Provident Fund
- Employee State Insurance Act
- RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) Guidelines
- Customs clearance and related procedures
- Labour & Employment Laws.
For the laws and regulations which are specifically applicable to the company, a checklist is to be prepared and accordingly after reporting from different heads of departments, the compliance is to be checked.
