Subsidiary company can adopt calendar year as its FY for consolidation of accounts

Facts

a) Universal Robots (India) Pvt. Ltd., is an Indian Subsidiary of Universal Robots AS, which is registered in Denmark.

b) It had adopted FY ending March 31, 2015as per the requirement of the Companies Act, 2013. Whereas, the holding company followed the calendar year as FY. So, it realised that due to different FY it will be difficult to consolidate its accounts with that of holding company.

c) The Board of Directors of the Universal Robots (India) Pvt. Ltd.passed a resolution to change its FY to calendar year. Holding company also consented for the same. d) It filed petition to get permission to follow calendar year as its FY for consolidation of accounts.

The NCLT held as under:

1) Section 2(41) of the Companies Act, 2013 provides as follows:

"financial year", in relation to any company or body corporate, means the period ending on the 31st day of March every year, and where it has been incorporated on or after the 1st day of January of a year, the period ending on the 31st day of March of the following year, in respect whereof financial statement of the company or body corporate is made up; Provided that on an application made by a company or body corporate, which is a holding company or a subsidiary of a company incorporated outside India and is required to follow a different financial year for consolidation of its accounts outside India, the Tribunal may, if it is satisfied, allow any period as its financial year, whether or not that period is a year."

2) Having regard to the above provisions, it could be concluded that Universal Robots (India) Pvt. Ltd. could adopt calendar year as its FY for consolidation of accounts with its holding company. - [2016] 73 taxmann.com 75