What is a CIN?
A CIN is the 21-character corporate identity number issued by the MCA to every company registered in India. How to decode one.
A CIN (Corporate Identity Number) is the 21-character identifier the Ministry of Corporate Affairs assigns to every registered company. LLPs get an LLPIN instead, which is shorter and formatted differently.
Reading a CIN
Take U72200KA2013PTC098765:
| Segment | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | U | Listed status — L listed, U unlisted |
| 2–6 | 72200 | Industry code |
| 7–8 | KA | State of registration (Karnataka) |
| 9–12 | 2013 | Year of incorporation |
| 13–15 | PTC | Company class — PTC private, PLC public |
| 16–21 | 098765 | Registration number |
A great deal is legible at a glance: whether the company is listed, when it was incorporated, where, and whether it is private or public.
Why the incorporation year matters
A company incorporated three months ago bidding on a large contract is not disqualified by that fact, but it is a fact worth weighing — especially against eligibility criteria that ask for three years of turnover.
What people get wrong
Confusing CIN with GSTIN. Different registers, different regulators, different purposes. A company has both; a sole proprietor has a GSTIN and no CIN.
Not looking up the company's filing status. The MCA register shows whether annual filings are current. A company several years behind on filings is telling you something.
On Bidancer
For incorporated entities, CIN is part of business KYC alongside PAN and GSTIN, so the company's legal existence is established rather than asserted.
BOQ (Bill of Quantities)
A BOQ lists every item of work with its measured quantity so bidders price the same scope. How BOQs are used in Indian tenders.
DigiLocker
DigiLocker is the Government of India's document wallet. How it is used for identity verification, and why a DigiLocker-fetched document differs from an upload.