SEC offers remedy for delinquent firms to restore good standing

Delinquent and noncompliant companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) now have a chance to turn their status around, by paying significantly lower fees under the agency’s newest incentive plan.

Through Memorandum Circular No. 13 series of 2024, or the Enhanced Compliance Incentive Plan (ECIP), the SEC said companies that have not filed or were late in filing their general information sheet and financial statements may only pay a P20,000 fee.

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Under the SEC’s current schedule of fees, companies with late filings will incur up to P22,000 in penalties. On top of this, they have to pay fees for every month that they fail to submit the required documents.

Meanwhile, suspended and revoked corporations, including those that have already filed petitions to lift their suspension and revocation orders, may pay a fee of P3,060 and only 50 percent of the fines and penalties imposed on them for their violations.

Coverage

Fines and penalties in these cases depend on the offense of these firms.

Companies excluded from the ECIP are publicly listed firms whose securities are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Likewise, the memorandum does not cover companies whose securities are registered but not listed on the bourse, those with intra-corporate disputes and disputed general information sheets, and corporations with expired corporate terms.

The SEC clarified, however, that paying these fees would not automatically change the companies’ status nor lift their suspension or certificate revocation.

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According to the commission, qualified companies also need to submit the latest version of the requirements they failed to file, among others, until Nov. 30.

“With the launch of ECIP, we are affording corporations under our supervision another opportunity to remedy their violations, at lower fees, and restore their good standing,” SEC chair Emilio Aquino said in a statement on Monday.

The ECIP launch came more than a year after the commission had unveiled its amnesty program, which attracted 81,700 companies that “successfully complied” with requirements.

After the amnesty program lapsed this year, the SEC has imposed higher fines and penalties for late and nonfiling of reportorial requirements by corporations, with some increasing by as much as 900 percent.

Fee restructuring

Apart from higher fines and penalties, the commission is likewise planning to raise regulatory fees, which had not been updated since 2017.

SEC Commissioner McJill Bryant Fernandez earlier said the Anti-Red Tape Authority had given the green light for the proposed hike.

The SEC proposes to hike the charge for amending by-laws or articles of incorporation to P3,500 from P1,000 currently, depending on the change.

Fees for corrections may rise to P15,000 from P3,000, while companies that want to petition the SEC to set aside a suspension or revocation order may pay up to P20,000 from P3,000. INQ