SPICe vs SPICe+: What the Plus Added and Why the Old Form Is Gone

If you are about to register a company, you will meet two names that sound almost identical: SPICe and SPICe+. One is dead. The other is the only way in. Founders still mix them up, and the mix-up costs real money — usually a lapsed name reservation or a filing rejected for a form that no longer exists.

In short: SPICe was the MCA's first single-form incorporation route (INC-32, launched in 2016): one form for name, incorporation, DIN and PAN/TAN. SPICe+ replaced it on 23 February 2020 as a web-based form that bundles ten services — adding GSTIN, EPFO, ESIC, profession tax and bank account opening — and it is now the only route for new companies.

What SPICe actually was

Before 2016, incorporating a company meant a relay race across separate forms: DIR-3 for a director's DIN, INC-1 for the name, INC-7 for the company itself, INC-22 for the registered office. Each had its own queue. SPICe — Simplified Proforma for Incorporating a Company Electronically, form INC-32 — collapsed the first part of that race into one electronic form. You filed it once and got the name reservation, the incorporation, DIN allotment and, from January 2017, the PAN and TAN applications in the same packet.

It was a genuine improvement. It was also a PDF. You downloaded the form, filled it offline, attached the memorandum and articles, and uploaded the lot. Anything beyond the four core items — provident fund, employee insurance, GST, a bank account — still meant separate portals, separate logins and separate waiting. The MCA's own comparison put it plainly: SPICe offered five services. The rest of starting a business was still your problem.

What SPICe+ is, and what the Plus actually added

SPICe+ arrived through the Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2020, notified on 18 February 2020, and became mandatory for every company incorporated from 23 February 2020. Same idea, rebuilt as a web form on the MCA portal — today the MCA V3 portal — instead of a downloadable PDF. And the Plus is not marketing. At launch it bundled ten services across three central ministries and the Maharashtra government: name reservation, incorporation, DIN allotment, PAN, TAN, EPFO registration, ESIC registration, profession tax, bank account opening and GSTIN. The list has grown since — profession tax now covers Karnataka and West Bengal too, and Delhi companies can add Shops and Establishment registration through the same filing.

Think of it the way you would think of booking a train journey. SPICe was one counter that sold you the ticket and told you where the other counters were. SPICe+ is the whole journey in one app: ticket, berth, meal and the cab at the other end, booked in a single sitting. The form did not just get longer. The job got finished in one place.

SPICe vs SPICe+: the comparison

Is the old SPICe form still valid?

No. This is the part worth stating without any softening. Every company incorporated with effect from 23 February 2020 has to come through SPICe+. The old INC-32 form cannot be filed for a new company, and any guide, video or agent still describing it as the current route is out of date. The RUN service — Reserve Unique Name — survives only for one job now: changing the name of a company that already exists.

If you are registering a private limited company today, the form you will actually touch is SPICe+. Knowing the old form's name matters for exactly one reason: so you recognise it as history when it shows up in an old blog post.

Part A and Part B: the two halves of SPICe+

SPICe+ splits into two parts, and the split is where most first-time filings stumble.

Part A — the name

Part A is the name reservation. You propose up to two names in order of preference, give the NIC code for your main business activity, and say what the name means. The portal checks it live against existing company and LLP names, trademark records and the list of prohibited words. Approval usually takes one to three working days, and it costs ₹1,000.

Here is the trap: an approved name stays reserved for 20 days. If Part B is not filed inside that window, the reservation lapses. You lose the ₹1,000 and start again with a fresh Part A. Founders lose names this way more often than they admit — usually because the documents were not ready when the name was. Get the papers together first, then file Part A.

Part B — the company

Part B is the incorporation itself: registered office, capital structure, directors and subscribers, and the objects of the company. It has to be linked to an approved Part A SRN or an approved RUN reference. It is filed together with the linked forms — AGILE-PRO-S, the INC-9 declaration, and the electronic memorandum and articles, INC-33 and INC-34.

Some guides insist Part B cannot be filed without a separate Part A. That is not quite right: the portal also lets you propose a name inside Part B. But it is still the worse way to file. A rejected name inside Part B holds up the entire application, while a rejected Part A costs you only the fee and a fresh name. File Part A first. Treat the ₹1,000 as cheap insurance.

The linked forms you file alongside

Three companions travel with Part B, and each does a distinct job.

AGILE-PRO-S (INC-35) is the form with the long name: Application for GSTIN, ESIC registration, EPFO registration, Profession Tax and Opening of bank account. It is mandatorily linked to Part B — even if you opt out of every service it offers, you still complete the form and leave the optional fields blank. Do not skip it; the portal will not let the filing through without it. GSTIN is the optional one here: tick it and the company gets its GST number with the incorporation; skip it and you file for GST separately later.

INC-9 is the declaration by every subscriber and first director under Section 7(1)(b) of the Companies Act, 2013 — that the information is true and that nobody signing is disqualified. The portal generates it from your Part B entries; each person signs it with a digital signature.

e-MoA (INC-33) and e-AoA (INC-34) are the memorandum and articles, executed electronically inside the portal. If the company adopts Table F — the model articles in Schedule I — without changes, INC-34 is not needed. Most companies file a customised e-AoA anyway, because that is where ESOP pools, drag-along rights and investor reserved matters live.

What does SPICe+ cost?

The government fee for incorporation is nil for authorised capital up to ₹15 lakh, under the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014. That is the headline, and it is real — most seed-stage companies incorporate with authorised capital between ₹1 lakh and ₹10 lakh, squarely inside the nil bracket. What you actually pay is everything around it.

Take a concrete case. Meera and Arjun incorporate a Delhi company with ₹10 lakh authorised capital and ₹1 lakh paid up, two directors, two subscribers:

The government charges come to roughly ₹1,000 plus stamp duty before professional fees — and stamp duty is the one number I will not quote here, because it is a state levy on authorised capital and the portal computes it from the live schedule at the moment you file. Any guide that gives you a fixed stamp-duty figure for every state is guessing. If you want to work out the full cost for your own case, run your capital and state through the calculator and add the professional fee your CA or CS quotes on top. For a sense of the range, what a private limited company costs to register is covered in detail in our cost guide — the SPICe+ fee structure is the same spine, with the state stamp duty as the moving part.

Time works the same way. A clean SPICe+ filing typically closes in 7 to 10 working days, with the certificate of incorporation, PAN and TAN arriving together. Before 2020, the same journey commonly took 30 to 45 days across the separate portals. The saving is not the form. It is the portals you no longer visit.

What SPICe+ still does not do

The Plus is broad, not total. Four gaps catch people.

First, the DIN cap. SPICe+ allots DINs to at most three first directors in one filing. If your company starts with four or five directors, the rest apply for DINs through Form DIR-3 after incorporation. Plan the board accordingly, or file with three and appoint the rest once the company exists.

Second, foreign subscribers. A subscriber without an Indian digital signature cannot sign INC-9, e-MoA or e-AoA electronically. Their documents need notarisation and apostille or consularisation, and the physical declarations add days. Start that paperwork before Part A, not after.

Third, Section 8 companies. A non-profit company files two extra forms — INC-14, the practising professional's certificate, and INC-15, each director's declaration. SPICe+ does not waive them.

Fourth, conversions. Turning a partnership firm or LLP into a company runs through URC-1 alongside SPICe+, not instead of it. The Plus covers new companies; a conversion is a different filing with its own conditions.

New in 2026: another bank joins the counter

The bank-account step keeps moving. Federal Bank was empanelled on the MCA SPICe+ portal on 6 November 2026, so a new company can now pick Federal Bank inside AGILE-PRO-S and have the bank reach out for video KYC after incorporation. The service itself carries no additional fee — that has been the MCA's position since the SPICe+ FAQs were first published. The practical point is simpler: the list of banks you can choose from at incorporation is still growing, six years after launch, which is why a comparison written in 2021 quietly goes stale on this one detail.

After the certificate: the clock that starts ticking

The certificate of incorporation is the middle of the story, not the end. Three dates follow it. Hold the first board meeting within 30 days of incorporation. Appoint the first auditor within 30 days and file ADT-1 within 15 days of that appointment. And file the INC-20A declaration of commencement of business within 180 days, if the company has share capital — miss it and the company faces a ₹50,000 penalty, plus ₹1,000 a day on every officer in default. None of these is part of SPICe+. All of them assume you know they exist.

Five mistakes that hurt people

• Letting Part A lapse. Twenty days sounds generous until the DSC issuance and the NOC from a joint owner eat two weeks. File Part A when the documents are ready, not before.
• A name mismatch between PAN, Aadhaar and the form. The portal validates DIN, PAN and Aadhaar combinations live against NSDL and UIDAI. One transposed letter in a name or date of birth stops the filing cold. Check the spelling on the PAN card itself — it is the anchor document.
• Assuming GSTIN is automatic. It is optional inside AGILE-PRO-S. If you do not tick it, the company has no GST number and you file for one separately after incorporation.
• Filing with four first directors and expecting four DINs. The cap is three. The fourth director waits for DIR-3.
• Leaving AGILE-PRO-S blank or skipping it. It is mandatory even with every service declined. An incomplete AGILE-PRO-S is the commonest reason a clean Part B bounces back.

Should you file it yourself?

A clean case — two resident directors, matching documents, a name without a sensitive word, a standard private limited company — is genuinely doable yourself. The portal validates as you go, and the fees are small. Bring a professional in when the case is not clean: a foreign subscriber, a Section 8 structure, a name that needs a regulator's no-objection, or a deadline you cannot afford to miss. The professional fee buys two things: the filings you did not know existed, and someone to answer for them if the RoC raises a query. For the full checklist of the documents SPICe+ asks for, our documents guide walks through each one — including the NOC rule that trips up founders using a director's own home as the registered office.

Frequently asked questions

Is SPICe still valid in 2026?
No. SPICe (INC-32) was replaced by SPICe+ with effect from 23 February 2020. Every new company since then has to incorporate through SPICe+. The old form cannot be filed for a new incorporation.

Can I file SPICe+ Part B without filing Part A first?
The portal lets you propose a name inside Part B, but it is a poor trade. A name rejected inside Part B stalls the whole application; a name rejected in Part A costs only the ₹1,000 fee and a fresh proposal. File Part A first.

What is the SPICe+ fee for a private limited company?
The government incorporation fee is nil for authorised capital up to ₹15 lakh. Part A costs ₹1,000. Stamp duty on the memorandum and articles varies by state and is computed by the portal. Digital signatures run about ₹1,500 per director. PAN, TAN and the bank account application cost nothing extra.

How many directors can get a DIN through SPICe+?
Up to three first directors in a single filing. Additional directors apply through Form DIR-3 after the company is incorporated.

Is GST registration compulsory with SPICe+?
No. GSTIN is optional inside AGILE-PRO-S. Tick it and the company gets its GST number with the incorporation; skip it and you register for GST separately afterwards. EPFO and ESIC registration, by contrast, are issued mandatorily as part of the filing.

How long does SPICe+ incorporation take?
A clean filing typically closes in 7 to 10 working days from Part A approval to the certificate of incorporation, with PAN and TAN issued alongside. Name approval itself takes one to three working days, and the 20-day Part A window is the deadline that matters most.