The renewal fee for business names has been increased from GHȼ25.00 to GHȼ30.00 per a communiqué from the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC).

A penalty fee of GHȼ450.00 to GHȼ600.00 is also to be imposed on defaulting Companies and Partnerships effective 31st December 2022.

The increments are expected to affect “all Sole Proprietorships and Subsidiary Business Names as well as Companies in default including Churches, Associations, Unions, Foundations, Schools, Fun Clubs, External Companies and Professional Bodies.”

Companies under the new adjustments are obliged “to file their Financial Statements together with their Annual Returns at a cost of GHȼ 60.00 per year to renew their Companies” and “external companies are to submit their Group Accounts to the ORC at a cost of $690.00 per year or in default pay a penalty of $750.00 in addition to fees for all the years in default.”

Partnerships are also expected to renew their Partnerships at GHȼ60.00 per year.

The communiqué however rescinded the Office’s initial decision to strike out the names of some 2,584 defaulting companies as part of a mass mopping exercise, dependent on those companies filing their annual returns by the end of year 2022.

“Further to the above, the 2,584 companies in default whose names had been earmarked for strike off from the Companies Register during the clean-up exercise can still be in good standing by filing their Annual Returns by end of the year, 2022. All Business Entities (Companies, Partnerships, and Sole Proprietorships) yet to migrate their business records onto the e-Registrar application dubbed ‘Re-Registration’ have up to 31st January 2023 to do so and be in good standing to avoid sanctions.”

The statement cautioned the public to be careful of fraudsters who call them pretending to be staff of the Office and asks them to send them monies.

It warned that payments on transactions be done “at our in-house Fidelity Bank or any Fidelity Bank branch across the country.”