Extend the Beneficial Ownership declaration submission deadline

Tuesday, 22 September 2026 05:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Under the latest regulations issued by the Registrar of Companies (ROC), all ROC-registered companies are required to submit a formal Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) declaration in the prescribed format. This declaration must be filed online through the ROC’s official portal by the current deadline of 30 September 2026. However, the submission process is unnecessarily complex and time-consuming, requiring companies to upload extensive current and historical information relating to their UBOs. In some cases, identifying and tracing the relevant UBOs is a particularly difficult and demanding exercise.

These difficulties are made worse by persistent technical issues on the ROC website. Users frequently encounter problems logging in or uploading documents, apparently due to heavy traffic and shortcomings in the portal’s design and usability. Since, in most cases the company secretaries carry the responsibility for submitting the required information and documents for each company, the poor performance of the system has created a considerable and avoidable backlog.

For several days, system access and functionality have been so limited that only one company could be completed after a full day of work. When the portal functions properly, approximately 35 to 40 companies can be completed in a single day. The ROC must therefore take immediate steps to upgrade or fine-tune its official portal, address these technical deficiencies, and ensure that the system operates reliably and efficiently.

In view of these circumstances, the ROC should extend the submission deadline from 30 September 2026 to at least 31 December 2026. This extension is necessary to give companies a fair and practical opportunity to complete the required filings accurately and within a reasonable timeframe.

Sariputhra

Colombo 05