Registrar of Companies to allocate Corporate Identity Number (CIN) to each company registered on or after 1-11-2000 - Companies Law - CIRCULAR NO. 12/2000,

CIRCULAR NO. 12/2000, DATED 25-10-2000, ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPANY AFFAIRS Subject:- Registrar of Companies to allocate Corporate Identity Number (CIN) to each company registered on or after 1-11-2000 1. It has been decided that all Registrar of Companies will allocate a Corporate Identity Number (CIN) to each company registered on or after 1st November, 2000. 2. The CIN has been designed to help easily identify companies belonging to a State, industry, ownership or age. It will be 21-digit number. 3. The first letter denotes the listed or unlisted company. The first five digits represent, the economic activity of the company, the second two places represent the State in which the company s registered office is located, the next four places indicate the year in which the company was incorporated, the next three places indicate ownership code and the last six places in the CIN are the unique number assigned to every company in any particular economic activity, in a particular State, of a particular year of incorporation and of a particular ownership category. For example, the new CIN for a few well known companies are presented below: Steel Authority of India Ltd. L 27104DL1973UGCXXXXXX Tata Engineering Locomotive L 3410MH1943PLCXXXXXX The complete listing of State code and the ownership code is enclosed (here reproduced below): 4. Training schedule for the officers and staff of Registrars of Companies in this regard is being chalked out by the NIC and will be sent to you shortly. 5. All Registrars of Companies are directed to act accordingly. Implementation of corporate identity number (CIN) Corporate identity number (CIN) A new investor friendly corporate identity number (CIN) is being introduced to uniquely identify every company registered with the Registrar of Companies. Currently, the present registration number assigned to a company does not reflect the activity or the State or ownership of the company. The CIN assigned to a company indicates the following : n Listing status n Economic activity (Industry) n State n Year of incorporation n Ownership n Sequential Number assigned by ROCs The CIN is explained schematically below : l The first digit of the CIN represents the listing status of a company. If the company is unlisted, the alphabet entered is U and in case the company is listed the alphabet entered is L . In general, freshly incorporated companies are unlisted. l The second five digits represent the economic activity of the company. The standard National Industrial Classification (NIC) 98, at the 5-digit level, would be used to assign activity/industry code. The NIC 98 has been devised by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO); Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. The document giving details on the codes can be procured from the CSO. Annexure I presents a sample classification for a few economic activities. l The next two places represent the State in which the company s registered office is located. All States are represented by a two-alphabet code. The complete list of State code is presented in Annexure II to this note. l The next four places indicate the year in which the company was incorporated. l Next, the ownership code is indicated through a three-alphabet code. The list of codes with their description is presented in Annexure III to this note. l The last six places in the CIN are the sequential number assigned to every company by the concerned RoC office of the State. l Note that there is no space, hyphen, oblique sign, etc., between the various code components. STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF CIN Step 1 : First place in CIN represents the listing status of a company. The listing status code is represented by an alphabet. If company is listed, then assign L ; otherwise assign U for unlisted company. Step 2 : The next five places represent the economic activity of the company according to the standard National Industrial Classification (NIC) 98. Select the economic activity code of the company from NIC 98 Manual and assign the code. In case if a company is operating in a diverse fields, then assign 00000 as a diversified company. The Manual/Document on NIC 98 can be obtained from CSO. Annexure I presents a sample classification for a few economic activities. Step 3 : The next two places represents the state in which the company s registered office is located. All States are represented by a two-alphabet code. The complete list of State code is presented in Annexure II to this note. Assign the State code from the list given in Annexure II. Step 4 : The next four places represent the year of incorporation of the company. Assign the year of incorporation of a company in YYYY format. Example, if a company is incorporated on 2nd April, 1982. Then assign 1982 as year of incorporation. Step 5 : The next three places represent the ownership of a company. Whether the company is Union Government company or State Government company, private limited or public limited company. Ownership code is represented by three alphabet code. The list of codes with their description is presented in Annexure III to this note. Assign the ownership code from the list presented in Annexure III. Step 6 : The last six places represents the unique sequential number assigned to every company by the concerned RoCs office of the State. This unique six digit sequential number is assigned by the respective RoCs. Note that there is no space, hyphen, oblique sign, etc. between the various code components. Consider an example of an existing company ABC India Ltd. ABC India Ltd. 1392 (Registration Number) ABC India Ltd. L60230AS1972PLC1393 (CIN) The registration number does not give any information about the company where as the CIN provides information about the listing status, activity (Industry), ownership, registered office, and year of incorporation of the company. An investor friendly CIN of ABC India Ltd. indicates the following characteristics of the company. L - Listed company 60230 - Freight transport by road AS - Registered office in Assam 1972 - 28 year old company PLC - Public limited Indian non-Government company 1393 - Sequential number assigned by respective RoCs Annexure I 15 : Manufacture of Food Products and Beverages 151 Production, Processing and preservation of meat, fish, fruit vegetables, oils and fats 1511 Production, Processing and preserving of meat and meat products. 15111 Mutton-slaughtering, preparation 15112 Beef-slaughtering, preparation 15113 Pork-slaughtering, preparation 15114 Poultry and other slaughtering, preparation 15115 Preservation of meat except by canning 15116 Processing and canning of meat 15117 Rendering and refining of land and other edible animal fats 15118 Production of flours and meals of meat and meat offals Processing and preserving of fish products fishing and processing of the catch... 15121 Sun-drying of fish 15122 Artificial dehydration of fish and sea food 15123 Radiation preservation of fish and similar food 15124 Processing and canning of fish 15125 Manufacturing of fish meal 15126 Processing and canning of froglegs 15127 Processing and preserving of fish crustacean and similar foods 1512 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 16: xxxxxxxxx Annexure II Codes State Codes State AN Andaman Nicobar Island KL Kerala AP Andhra Pradesh LD Lakshadweep AR Arunachal Pradesh MP Madhya Pradesh AS Assam MH Maharashtra BR Bihar MN Manipur CH Chandigarh ML Meghalaya CT Chattisgarh* MZ Mizoram DN Dadar Nagar Haveli NL Nagaland DD Daman Diu OR Orissa DL Delhi PY Pondicherry GA Goa PB Punjab GJ Gujarat RJ Rajasthan HR Haryana SK Sikkim HP Himachal Pradesh TN Tamil Nadu JK Jammu Kashmir TR Tripura JH Jharkhand* UR Uttranchal* KA Karnataka UP Uttar Pradesh WB West Bengal *The codes will be operational once the RoC office opens up in the State Annexure III Codes Ownership GOI Union Government company SGC State Government company PLC Public limited Indian non-Government company PTC Private limited Indian non-Government company FLC Public limited foreign company incorporated in India FTC Private limited foreign company incorporated in India ULL Unlimited liabilities public ULT Unlimited liabilities private GAP Guarantee and association public GAT Guarantee and association private NPL Section 25 company