The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will allow corporations and partnerships to file required documents, such as financial statements and other annual reports, via e-mail to limit its face-to-face interaction with the public.
The SEC released for public comment the draft memorandum circular providing for the schedule and procedure for the online submission of annual reports.
The agency will roll out the system in time for this year’s filing season that starts sometime before or after the April 15 tax submission deadline of the Bureau of Internal Revenue for many companies.
Initially, corporations may use the system for their annual financial statements, general information sheet, sworn statement for foundation, general form for financial statement and special form for financial statement.
The system will also accept submissions of several affidavits for non-operation and for the non-holding of annual meeting.
The initiative operationalizes some sections of the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines, the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, among other government initiatives.
To use the new system, corporations, partnerships and their authorized filers are required to enroll in the online submission facility by accomplishing the online application form and submitting the required documents.
The SEC will require a corporation or partnership enrolling in its system to submit a board resolution authorizing its representative to file reports on behalf of the corporation or partnership, and a special power of attorney from the authorized filer/representative to file reports for and on behalf of the corporation or partnership.
In addition, the corporation or partnership will have to submit a copy of its submission of email addresses and cellular phone numbers or its accomplished GIS using the 2020 version, as required by SEC Memorandum Circular 28, Series of 2020.
The enrollment period will open tentatively on March 15.
The SEC will require all stock corporations, including the branch offices, representative offices, regional headquarters and regional operating headquarters of foreign corporations, to submit their reports using the system starting this year.
Nonstock corporations, meanwhile, will still have the option to submit their reports over the counter this year. By 2022, the SEC will require all nonstock corporations to enroll in and submit their reports through its system.
Once enrolled, the authorized filer of a corporation or partnership may start submitting reports through its new system. The SEC will no longer require the submission of the hard copies of the reports.
The will specify the format of the reports for submission. For the GIS, for instance, a filer must submit the accomplished but unsigned form saved as a multipage portable document format (PDF), as well as the high resolution scan of the signed and notarized document saved as a multipage PDF.
The SEC will review the quality of the image of the reports submitted. Once the reports have passed quality assurance, the filer will receive a QR code indicating the final acceptance of the reports.
Once transmitted to the concerned department, non-confidential reports will be made available on an online portal for public use.
The SEC will no longer accept submissions made through email, mail or courier, and provide drop boxes in its offices once its new system goes live.
All corporations shall submit the GIS within the 30 days following their respective annual meetings.
For their audited financial statements (AFS), corporations whose fiscal years ended on December 31, 2020 must observe a specific deadline of submission depending on the last numerical digit of their SEC registration or license numbers.
Corporations whose fiscal year ends on a date other than December 31 should file their AFS within 120 days from the end of their fiscal year.
Meanwhile, publicly listed companies and other issuers of securities should file their AFS within 105 days after the end of their fiscal years.
The public have until February 26 to submit their comments and inputs.