Take advantage of amnesty program, SEC urges erring firms

@MiguelrcamusINQ The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is urging noncompliant corporations to enter 2024 with a clean slate and take advantage of its amnesty program before the year-end deadline.

Launched in March 2023, the amnesty program allows noncompliant and suspended or revoked corporations to pay a reduced penalty for the late and nonfiling of their general information sheets (GIS) and annual financial statement. “Corporations now have less than three weeks to avail [themselves] of the SEC amnesty program until the final deadline on December 31, 2023,” the SEC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The corporate regulator earlier released a list of 22,403 ordinary corporations facing the cancellation of their corporate papers for failure to submit their GIS within five years from the date of incorporation.

A separate list covering 298,335 ordinary corporations that have failed to submit their GIS for three times consecutively or intermittently within five years has likewise been released. “Such corporations are encouraged to avail [themselves] of the amnesty program to avoid getting their corporate registrations revoked or getting tagged as delinquent,” the SEC said.

“Availing of the amnesty will also allow them to continue enjoying the benefits and privileges of being a registered business in the Philippines,” it added.

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Corporations availing themselves of the amnesty program need to submit a web-based expression of interest form on their SEC Electronic Filing and Submission Tool (eFAST) accounts and pay the amnesty fee.

Suspended and revoked corporations will also need to pay the petition fee. INQ