ORC to Deploy Mini Mobile Office to Assist Companies

To ensure that as many persons as possible benefit from a recently announced amnesty by the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC), a mini mobile office is being deployed by the Registrar to the parishes of St. James, Westmoreland and Manchester and their environs.
The mini-mobile will be out from December 6 to 10 to allow businesspersons in the three parishes to become compliant with the requirements of the Companies Act and to file outstanding annual returns and other documents.
The initiative is called a mini-mobile, as only services related to the amnesty will be accommodated. Members of the ORC amnesty team will be on hand to assist businesspersons to complete and submit the relevant documents.
At a recent press briefing, Commerce, Science and Technology Minister, Phillip Paulwell, announced the amnesty, which would last from November 18 to December 31. It would allow persons to file their companies’ annual returns and other documents at reduced rates. Additionally, late fees for the filing of returns have been waived.
Annual returns would normally be filed at a fee of $3,000, with a late fee of $200 for each return. Companies can now file their annual returns for $2,000 and the late fee will be waived. For non-profit companies, the annual return fee would be reduced from $3,000 to $1,000 and the fee for filing income and expenditure statements will be reduced from $1,200 to $500.
According to Minister Paulwell, the amnesty would give companies, which have fallen behind in their filings, “an opportunity to catch up with their statutory obligations and start January 2005 with a clean slate”. He added that the ORC would also be given an opportunity to cleanse its register, while preparing to administer the new Companies Act, scheduled for implementation on January 1, 2005.
From December 6 to 7, the ORC mobile office will be in Montego Bay at the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), 18 Howard Cooke Boulevard. From there, the crew will move to Savanna-la-Mar’s IRD on Great George Street from December 8 to 9. On Friday, December 10, the Mandeville IRD on South Race Course Road, will host the mobile office for businesspersons in that area.
There are 69,589 companies on the ORC register and of that number, approximately 10,000 have been removed, while more than 40,000 companies have not filed any documents within the last five years.
As a consequence of not meeting the statutory obligations with the Registrar, companies could have their name struck off the ORC register or face court action.