A Company Secretary is a person who is appointed by the board of directors and is in charge of the company’s administration. Company secretaries are responsible for a wide range of legal and administrative duties. A Company Secretary performs one of the most critical responsibilities and serves as the company’s support system. The company secretary has a variety of functions, including legal, administrative, and other prospective corporate responsibilities. A company secretary’s responsibilities include general administration, corporate governance, shareholder communication, and statutory compliance/accounting filing.
The most important duties and responsibilities that company secretary firms perform for your business are mentioned below:
- Company secretaries are well-versed in a variety of business and commercial regulations, including company laws, securities laws, labour laws, and so on. As a result, they are typically involved in providing legal advice to businesses on complicated legal matters. Companies can seek advice from CS on a variety of legislation, including the Companies Act, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, Competition Act among others.
- A CS generally drafts a company’s most crucial papers, such as the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association. Not only these charter documents, but a CS must also produce several more documents like shareholders agreement, selling agreement, collaboration agreement, and other pre-incorporation arrangements; Board of Directors report; Legal opinion and advisory comments; Notices, applications, and petitions in the legal system and many more.
- CS professionals are permitted to represent their clients/companies before a variety of state agencies, including the following: Registrar of Companies, National Company Law Tribunal, Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Competition Commission of India, Stock Exchanges etc.
- Certification services are one of a CS’s most fundamental tasks. A company secretary is required to certify several legislative compliances and documents. As part of their compliance obligations, businesses must complete several forms throughout the year. In practise, most of these forms are verified by a company secretary. Additionally, they are in charge of signing and verifying the company’s yearly returns.
- Company secretaries can also provide a variety of accounting and finance-related services. They frequently work for corporations, writing project reports and doing feasibility assessments for prospective initiatives. They can also help with tax planning, tax administration, and numerous compliance issues including direct and indirect taxes. They also give advice on budgetary restrictions and capital structure selection.
- In recent years, business secretaries have begun to take on additional tasks and roles. After passing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India’s tests and training, they are able to be appointed as insolvency professionals. They can also work as GST professionals and registered valuers, which is a different position from their conventional one.
- The fact that cs firms act as the company’s compliance officer cannot be denied. A firm is required to comply with a significant number of laws as a result of its features. A company secretary firm ensures that these laws are followed. A CS does everything from completing various documents to maintaining appropriate corporate governance standards.
- Convening general and board meetings is normally the responsibility of the CS. In most cases, the company secretary calls a general meeting or a meeting of the Board of Directors. Furthermore, the company secretary is in charge of producing the meeting minutes, and the minutes book is solely kept by them.
- Company secretary makes every effort to ensure that the firm follows strong corporate governance procedures at all times. The Firms Act of 2013 intends to ensure excellent corporate governance standards, and the existence of company secretary in companies reinforces this idea.
Company secretaries play a significant part in the day-to-day operations of a business. They have a number of legal and moral obligations to the firm. They perform a variety of duties and responsibilities, including compliance and representation.
There are several company secretary firms in Mumbai. One of the best cs firms in Mumbai among them is JSP Associates. Mr. Jatin S. Popat founded JSP Associates as a practicing company secretary firm, which has grown to a team of 25+ experts. They have more than 22 years of professional experience. JSP Associates has steadily grown its resource team and Corporate Secretarial Services in Mumbai, India, to provide IPR, Legal Matters, Liaison, Tax, Audits, Due Diligence, M&A, Winding-up, and other knowledge process outsourcing services.
