A buisness can obtain its credit report from Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL). This CIBIL report comprises indicators of the company’s credit history, prompt repayments and disciplined financial borrowings. The Commercial or Company CIBIL Report (CCR) is a multi-informational complete rating of your company’s information collated from all over India from the credit files of rating agencies by TransUnion CIBIL. Maintaining a commercial CIBIL report can aid your business in obtaining loans or investments without any issue. So, let's dive in and understand all about the steps to maintaining a good credit report for a business.
Did you know? CIBIL, formerly known as the TransUnion CIBIL Limited, was formed in 2000 based on the Siddiqui RBI Committee’s recommendations. In 2017 TransUnion bought a 92.1% stake, hence the name TransUnion CIBIL.
What is the Company CIBIL report?
CIBIL, or the former Indian Credit Information Bureau is the prime credit scoring and reporting agency. It is tasked with collecting and sourcing a company’s or individual’s financial information, which is collated under various heads and provides an accurate picture of the individual’s prior financial commitments, history of repayments, loans availed with all details, credit card information and its repayment history, and more.
Leading financial institutions, banks, investors, etc., use the CIBIL Credit Information Report or CIBIL CCR to base their risk assessment and lending decisions on whenever a loan application is made. The company credit score or its CIBIL score is, thus, a rating of your company’s financial information and loan repayments that are not fixed and keep changing.
The CCR has a wide array of your business data, personal information, risk scores, previous loan repayment history, etc. This business credit report also has information on the company account’s financial status that is used to judge its potential borrowing and risk capacity, financial responsibility, history of serial or concurrent defaults, etc. Thus, having a proper score increases the chance of availing of a business loan. Potential borrowers of commercial credit products are rated on this Company Credit Report when banks, investors, lenders or financial institutions make lending decisions. The CCR report applies to public limited, proprietorship, partnership and private limited companies with a credit exposure of ₹50 Crore. Hence, the credit rank impacts lending decisions and your CIBIL CCR or Company Credit Report.
Also read: GST Input Tax Credit on Supply of Goods or Services
What is Credit Rank?
The company’s credit history is collated from data submitted by banks and financial institutions across India to CIBIL; a commercial CIBIL credit rank is assigned to the company. The credit ranks assigned range from 1 to 10. The past repayment history has a strong impact on lending decisions and future company behaviour. Hence, the company’s credit ranking is similar to an individual’s credit score and is an important index of its financial health and behaviour.
The best possible score to achieve is 1, while is the poorest score is 10 and corresponds to the 300 to 900 individual credit score limits. Keep in mind that an individual’s score of 750 to 900 is the best score or similar to a company’s 1 rank. The closer your company’s rank gets to 1, the better the companies credit check, loan terms, interest rates, and possibilities of getting commercial loans for your company’s growth.
Features of Commercial CIBIL Report:
When you get your business’ CCR or Company Credit Report, here are some of the features you should pay attention to:
- ID details: This information is in the company CIBIL report’s first section and provides all factual details of the CCR along with when it was generated, at whose request, etc. Each CCR report has a unique serial number.
- Company Profile: This section follows the ID details and has all company information such as the name, contact details, address, and the company's unique Data Universal Numbering System Number (DUNS). If the DUNS number reflects as 99-999-9999, then this is similar to the XXX mark in an individual’s score, meaning that the DUNS is yet to be assigned to your company.
- Summary Report: This is reporting part and comprises the details of the company’s credit history, the type, amount and institutional loans availed, the outstanding balance, the total credit extended and even instances of being a guarantor to loans.
- Enquiry summary and Credit type: This part explains the type of loans availed, whether it is a term loan, working capital loan, overdraft facility, etc. The enquiry summary is a request for credit information made through a commercial CIBIL bank login. When this number is high, it means you are approaching too many lenders and are trying to raise an overly high amount of credit. It also consists of credit information and specifies if the credit is instalment, revolving, or open credit.
Also read: Where Can Input Tax Credit under GST Not Be Availed?
Procedure to get your Company CIBIL report:
Here is the step-by-step process to get your company’s CIBIL Commercial Report:
- Firstly go to the CIBIL website- https://cibilrank.cibil.com/
- Login via the CIBIL commercial member login tab.
- Next, enter the company details like its name, GSTN number, ID, Address, Type, Contact Information, etc. Click on the ‘Agree’ tab and save the filled-in application.
- Click on ‘Continue’ and proceed to the payments page to make a payment of ₹3000 for your company’s CCR.
- When making an online application, you can use any payment mode and use your debit, credit, pre-paid cards, net banking, UPI payments, etc.
- Once payment is made, you need to authenticate your saved application, which is made by answering CIBIL’s GST authentication process.
- CIBIL dispatches your company credit ranking score and credit information report on successful authentication within 24 hours.
- You can also apply for the CCR in offline mode by sending the application duly filled and signed along with your fee in the form of a DD or bank draft.
- Your offline application, credit rank/score, and CCR are sent to your address by post.
What is meant by GST reports?
A company’s GST history and reports are important in lending decisions based on the CIBIL commercial or Company Credit Report. This GST report provides a comprehensive 360-degree view of a business's financial reports. The GST report collates the history of filing the business’ GST returns on the official GST portal. It has the following details:
- Summary of your company’s GST Filing and whether such returns were filed on time or with late fees, penal fees, interest etc.
- A comprehensive view of the purchase data, monthly sales, etc., with their details and all information.
- A complete 2-year or 24-month purchase versus sales comparative trends.
Why are the GST reports important?
Here are some reasons why the GST reports are always sought out by lenders when considering your company’s loan application:
- Your GST report is taken from data collated from your GST filing on the GST portal. Hence, it is a trustworthy source for banks that check company credit and your company’s financial health, growth, and payments history.
- Your GST reports, along with the company’s Credit Report and the rank awarded by CIBIL, provide a 360-degree overview of your company’s credit history, financial payments, needs, repayment history and more.
- The commercial loan lending decisions are viewed based on the reports, and a good score or rank can save your company time, money and efforts during a commercial loan application process.
- A good ranking by CIBIL is conducive to enhanced credit limits, lower interest rates, better loan facilities and financial backing from financial institutions, banks, investors, commercial lenders, etc.
Also read: UPI-like platform needed for easy credit disbursal to MSMEs, says Union IT Minister
How to get your company’s GST report?
Your company’s GST report is included at no extra cost when you seek your company’s CCR or CIBIL Rank. The process takes a few minutes where you need to go to https://cibilrank.cibil.com/ to view your GST reports, Company Credit Report, and CIBIL Rank.
For the authentication process of viewing your company's GST report, you must use your business's GSTIN.
You must remember that the CIBIL score for company ranking is never fixed and keeps changing, and it is a good practice to obtain these reports at frequent intervals of time. The CIBIL’s CCR subscription plans provide you with these timely reports for free once you are a subscribed member.
The various subscription plans for the CIBIL ranking, GST reports and CCR comprehensive reports are:
- The Premium Plan has 12-month validity and includes 12 monthly GST reports, refreshed weekly access to the CIBIL dashboard and regular 12-month access to your company’s CCR and rank. The refresh process can be done weekly to get the CIBIL ranking and monthly to obtain the updated GST report.
- The Standard plan has 6-month validity and includes 6 monthly GST reports, refreshed weekly access to the CIBIL dashboard and regular 6-month access to your company’s CCR and rank.
- The Basic Plan has 1-time validity and includes 1 GST report, one-time access to the CIBIL dashboard and your company’s CCR and rank.
Company CIBIL report Improvement techniques:
Here are a few simple techniques to ensure a good credit score and its CCR improves and does not suffer when your loan application needs to be processed. All the below issues adversely impact your credit rank and CCR.
- When your company avails a loan, ensure you make timely payments.
- If you have a company credit card, make sure the credit card bills are paid within the provided 90-day period and do not incur any ‘Days past the Due Date’ (DPD) comments and late fees.
- Ensure all your company information provided and reflected in the CIBIL report is accurate. If inaccurate, raise the issue immediately and have the same correctly reflected.
- Never approach multiple lenders for the same loan as they all raise enquiry reports with CIBIL, which adversely affects your credit rank. Also, never borrow more than the company can pay back or for personal reasons.
Also read: Government extends Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme till March 31, 2023
Conclusion:
Companies, like individuals also need to exercise financial caution. They approach banks, lending institutions, investors, etc., for their commercial or business loan needs, and the lenders use a commercial CIBIL login to read the company’s CIBIL CCR. A good CIBIL rank closer to Rank-1, an excellent track record of payments, a comprehensive GST report, etc., can prove their loan eligibility and creditworthiness to lenders.
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