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title: "Compliance Radar: Find the Rules Your Business Must Follow"

meta_description: "Use Compliance Radar to find the Indian laws, deadlines and schemes that apply to your business, with official citations and a practical action plan."

category: "Compliance Operations"

target_keyword: "compliance radar"

monthly_volume: 10

content_lane: "demand_capture"

discovery_source: "google_ads_keyword_idea"

--

A missed rule can cost far more than the filing fee. Under Section 92(5) of the Companies Act, 2013, failure to file an annual return can expose a company and each defaulting officer to a ₹10,000 penalty, plus ₹100 for every continuing day. The maximum is ₹2 lakh for the company and ₹50,000 for an officer. Compliance Radar helps an Indian business identify the rules, deadlines and government schemes that fit its actual profile before a notice turns uncertainty into expense.

This is not another generic compliance checklist. A checklist copied from the internet cannot know your entity type, state, employee count, turnover, products, sales channels or licences. Compliance Radar starts with those facts, produces a business-specific answer and attaches citations so that you or your adviser can verify the result against the official source.

Want to see your own result instead of reading another list? [Describe your business and get your rules free](https://app.complianceradar.in). No card is required.

What Is Compliance Radar, and What Job Does It Do?

Compliance Radar is a compliance and incentive intelligence platform built for Indian businesses. You describe the business in ordinary language. The platform then identifies potentially applicable obligations, deadlines and schemes across central, state, municipal and sector regulators. It also explains why a rule may apply and cites the underlying source.

That distinction matters. “We are a manufacturer” is not enough information for a useful answer. Consider two manufacturers:

The platform is designed to answer four practical questions:

  1. What applies to this business? Applicability is matched to facts such as activity, location, entity structure, staff strength and turnover.
  2. What must we do next? An obligation becomes useful only when it is translated into a form, document, registration, renewal or deadline.
  3. Where does that conclusion come from? Citations let the user check the Act, rule, regulation, notification or government portal.
  4. What money might we be missing? The same business profile can surface government schemes and incentives worth investigating.

Compliance Radar does not replace a chartered accountant, company secretary or lawyer. It gives the owner and adviser a stronger starting point: a structured, cited map instead of a blank search box and twenty regulator websites.

Why a Generic Compliance Calendar Fails Indian Businesses

India does not have one universal “business compliance list”. Obligations arise from several layers at once.

At the central level, a company may have duties under the Companies Act, 2013; a registered taxpayer under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the matching state GST law; and a covered establishment under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. State shops and establishments, professional tax, labour welfare fund and factory rules add another layer. Municipal and sector regulators can add trade, fire, food, pollution, product and import-export requirements.

A spreadsheet usually fails in one of three ways:

The cost is not theoretical. The official GST portal explains that delayed Form GSTR-3B filing is system-computed at ₹25 per day under the Central GST component and ₹25 per day under the State GST component when tax is payable. For a nil return, it is ₹10 plus ₹10 per day. Interest on delayed tax is separate. See the GST portal’s GSTR-3B filing guidance.

Food businesses face a different clock. Regulation 2.1.7 of the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011 governs licence renewal. FSSAI’s order effective from 12 January 2023 removed the earlier ₹100-per-day late fee for renewal applications made during the final 30 days before expiry, but penalties for applications after expiry continue under the policy. FSSAI advises businesses to use the renewal window that opens 180 days before expiry. Read the official FSSAI renewal order.

These examples also show why static content goes stale. A sound system must preserve the source, its effective date and the facts used to decide applicability.

How to Get a Useful Compliance Radar Result

The quality of the first answer depends on the quality of the business description. “Tell me my compliances” is technically a query, but it forces the system to guess. Give it the facts a competent adviser would ask during the first call.

Step 1: State the legal structure and location

Say whether the entity is a proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, private limited company, public company, trust or society. Include the registered state and every state where there is an office, shop, warehouse, factory or employee base.

For example:

We are a private limited company registered in Karnataka, with an office in Bengaluru and a warehouse in Hyderabad, Telangana.

This immediately separates company-law duties from registrations that attach to a particular establishment or state.

Step 2: Describe what the business actually does

Do not rely only on a broad industry label. Name the product or service, how it is made, and how it reaches the customer. Mention imports, exports, marketplaces, food handling, packaging, hazardous material, waste, effluent, boilers or customer data where relevant.

“D2C brand” is vague. A better description is:

We import electric grooming products, sell them under our own brand on Amazon and our website, and store stock at a third-party warehouse in Jaipur.

That description raises concrete questions about importer obligations, product standards, packaged commodity declarations, GST registrations and marketplace disclosures.

Step 3: Add the thresholds that change applicability

Include annual turnover, employee count, contract-worker count, installed power, production capacity and premises type when known. If a figure is close to a threshold, say so.

For example, EPFO states that the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 automatically covers notified classes of establishments employing more than 19 persons. Crossing from 19 to 20 employees can therefore be legally important; read EPFO’s official coverage explanation.

Do not hide uncertainty. “We have 18 employees plus four regular contractors; please explain whether they count for the relevant tests” is more useful than reporting only the payroll headcount.

Step 4: Ask for an output you can act on

End the description with a clear job. Useful requests include:

A strong first query might read:

We manufacture packaged millet snacks in Mysuru, Karnataka, sell through retailers and our website, have ₹2.4 crore annual turnover and 18 employees, and operate a small boiler. List the licences, registrations, recurring returns and renewals we should verify. Separate central and Karnataka requirements, cite the official source for each, and show any food-processing schemes worth checking.

Try that structure with your own facts: [check your compliance posture free](https://www.complianceradar.in).

How to Verify the Answer Before You Act

A citation connects an understandable explanation to the controlling legal text. Use it.

For every important result, perform this five-part check:

  1. Match the legal name. Confirm the cited Act, rule or regulation is the one described in the answer.
  2. Check the provision. Read the cited section, rule, schedule or notification paragraph - not merely a search-result snippet.
  3. Confirm the jurisdiction. A Maharashtra rule cannot silently be applied to a Karnataka establishment.
  4. Confirm the effective date. A notification may be published on one date and take effect later. A draft is not the same as a notified final rule.
  5. Recheck the business facts. If turnover, headcount, product category or location is wrong, the applicability result may also be wrong.

This is especially important where several documents interact. Companies Act annual-return obligations offer a clean example. Section 92(4) of the Companies Act, 2013 sets the annual-return filing obligation. Section 92(5), as amended, provides the penalty for default. An MCA adjudication order illustrates how the provision is applied, but the order is not a substitute for checking the current Act and the facts of your company. See this Ministry of Corporate Affairs adjudication order.

Mark each result as one of four statuses:

Turn the Result Into a 30-Day Action Plan

Research has no commercial value until somebody owns the next action. Convert the output into an obligation register - a controlled list of what must be done, by whom, by when and with what evidence.

Your minimum register should contain:

Field | What to record

Obligation | The filing, payment, renewal, display, register or operational control

Legal source | Act/rule/notification name and provision

Jurisdiction | Central, state, municipal or sector regulator

Applicability facts | The turnover, headcount, activity, location or licence that triggered it

Due date | Statutory date plus an internal preparation date

Owner | One named person, not “finance team”

Evidence | Challan, acknowledgement, licence, return, board paper or inspection record

Status | Not started, in progress, filed, verified or not applicable

Then work through this 30-day sequence:

Complete these five tasks in 30 days

  1. Days 1–3: Confirm entities, premises, states, headcount, turnover, products, processes, licences and sales channels.
  2. Days 4–7: Put expired licences, statutory payments, imminent filings and inspection risks first.
  3. Days 8–14: Give every obligation a named internal owner, an internal due date and an evidence folder.
  4. Days 15–21: Take doubtful items to the relevant CA, CS, lawyer or regulator helpdesk with the business facts and cited provision.
  5. Days 22–30: Turn on relevant change alerts and assign a monthly review owner for each regulator.

The outcome should not be a hundred-row list designed to frighten the founder. It should be a smaller, verified operating system that shows the next deadline, the responsible person and the proof of completion.

Where Compliance Radar Fits With Your CA, CS or Lawyer

A CA may prepare tax returns, a CS may handle company-law filings and a lawyer may interpret disputed applicability or respond to a notice. Compliance intelligence solves a different problem: finding, structuring and monitoring potentially relevant rules across regulators.

Compliance Radar can help the business arrive prepared. Instead of asking, “Are we compliant?”, you can ask:

Our headcount reaches 20 next month. EPFO’s coverage material indicates that notified establishments with more than 19 persons fall within the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Please confirm the coverage date, employee classification and registration steps for our establishment.

That is a faster and more answerable professional question.

For CA, CS and compliance practices, the same approach can improve client intake: capture the profile, produce an initial obligation map, verify high-risk conclusions and create the calendar. The professional retains judgement and filing control.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Compliance Radar a substitute for a CA, CS or lawyer?

No. It helps identify, explain and monitor potentially applicable rules and schemes with citations. Use a qualified professional for formal opinions, disputed interpretation, filings requiring certification, notices, litigation and high-value decisions.

What information should I include in my first query?

Include entity type, locations, business activity, products or services, employee and contractor counts, turnover, sales channels, regulated equipment or processes, and current licences. Ask for the jurisdiction, source, deadline and next action for each result.

Can it cover state and municipal compliance, not just central laws?

Compliance Radar is designed for the Indian multi-jurisdiction problem: central, state, municipal and sector-regulator requirements. Coverage still depends on the profile facts supplied, so name every operating location and verify the cited local source.

Does it show government schemes as well as legal obligations?

Yes. The business description can be used to identify schemes and incentives that appear relevant. Scheme eligibility must still be checked against the current official guidelines, application window, eligible expenditure and implementing agency before spending money in reliance on it.

Are the answers available in Indian languages?

Compliance Radar supports English and India’s 22 scheduled languages. The legal citation remains important in every language because the official text controls if a translation or plain-language explanation is ambiguous.

What should I do if the answer and my adviser disagree?

Compare the cited provision, effective date, jurisdiction and business facts. Ask the adviser to explain which fact or legal interpretation changes the conclusion. For material exposure, follow documented professional advice or obtain a formal clarification from the competent authority.

How often should I update the business profile?

Update it whenever you enter a new state, open or close premises, cross a turnover or staff threshold, add a product, change a manufacturing process, begin importing or exporting, or obtain a new licence. Review it at least quarterly even if nothing obvious changed.

Use Compliance Radar to Move From Guessing to Action

Compliance does not fail because owners enjoy taking risks. It fails because the relevant facts sit in one place, the rule in another, the deadline in a third and the responsible person is never named. Compliance Radar brings those pieces into one cited, business-specific starting point.

Describe the company accurately. Ask for a concrete output. Verify the source and jurisdiction. Put every confirmed obligation into a register with an owner, internal date and evidence. Then monitor the regulators that can change the answer.

That is the practical value of Compliance Radar: less time searching broad checklists, better questions for advisers and earlier warning before a missed rule becomes a penalty or an expired licence stops operations.

[Check your compliance posture free at complianceradar.in](https://www.complianceradar.in) and turn your business description into a verified action list today.