Corporate affairs ministry imposes penalties on Herox, 2 individuals

New Delhi: The Corporate Affairs Ministry has slapped penalties on startup Herox Pvt Ltd and two individuals, who are part of the Munjal family, for violations of the significant beneficial owner norms.

Fines totalling Rs 6 lakh have been slapped on Herox while penalties of Rs 1.5 lakh each have been imposed on Suman Kant Munjal and Akshay Munjal, according to an order issued on Tuesday.

The company and the individuals violated the Significant Beneficial Owner (SBO) norms. Herox and the directors will file an appeal against the order, a statement said.

Under Section 90 of the Companies Act, 2013, entities are required to disclose the SBO details.

Herox and the two individuals have been penalised by the Registrar of Companies (RoC), NCT of Delhi & Haryana for the violations.

In recent times, the ministry has been taking action against entities violating SBO norms that are aimed at ensuring transparency as well as curbing illegal use of corporate structures.

In a 14-page order, the RoC said the company did not take any measure to file the e-form BEN-2 in terms of Section 90(4) of the Act despite receiving notices in BEN-1 from the significant beneficial owners.

"It was only after the initiation of the proceedings that the relevant e-forms were filed. Thus, there is clearly a failure to file in terms of Section 90(11) on the part of the company and its officers, which is being reckoned in terms of the three filings of BEN-2 made by the company," the order said.

BEN-1 is for the declaration by the SBOs to the company. BEN-2 is for declaration of the SBO details by the company to the ministry. An appeal against the order can be filed with the Regional Director (NR) within 60 days from the date of receipt of the order.

In a statement, Herox said that as mentioned in the RoC order, there is no non-compliance at the end of any shareholder and they had submitted the BEN-1 forms.

Herox did not file BEN-2 forms for the reason that its holding company had already filed the same.

The company has in compliance with the RoC notice filed the required BEN-2 forms, it added. The company and the directors will file an appeal before the Regional Director, the statement said.