NEW DELHI: The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) is likely to extend its deadline for companies to file their balance sheets in the new reporting format for the third time this year after only a fourth of the listed service providers passed the government validation test.

Under the new report format - eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) - introduced earlier this year, companies are required to report their financial statements in a user friendly global standard XBRL syntax as an .xml file instead of uploading their balance sheets in .doc or.pdf format.

"Most vendors treated the government test as trivial and didn't do their homework, so they could not even meet the basic requirements," said Swaminathan, CEO IRIS Business Services, among the first services providers that passed the test.

Around 65 software providers were listed with MCA out of which only 17 have managed to clear the validation test conducted by the ministry. The test was designed to ensure a certain standard in the service provided by these 'vendors' and help companies make an informed choice in buying the software.

"This has been a very dismal performance by these vendors given that the ministry had given them ample time to prepare since July this year. At this rate the deadline would have to be extended only delaying the entire process further," a ministry official told ET.

Nearly 30,000 companies are expected to file their financial statements in the new format this year and with just 17 vendors selling the required XBRL software there will be huge supply shortage and increased pressure to meet the deadline.

With only six weeks before the November 30 deadline for filing account only nine companies have actually filed in XBRL on the MCA website. The earlier deadlines were July 31 and September 30.

Moreover, industry experts fear that this will push up the prices of these softwares which are already quite varied. The price of the software ranges from Rs 20,000 to Rs 65000 for similar filings.