Another 2 lakh companies may be struck off: Minister

More than two lakh companies have been identified for not filing their financial statements for two consecutive years and therefore may be struck off, Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P. P. Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

In the current fiscal, a total of 2,25,910 companies have been identified for action under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013 on the basis of non-filing of due returns for the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17, the Minister said.

Chaudhary said the Registrars of Companies (ROCs) will follow due procedure before striking off the names of these companies.

Last fiscal, the government had identified 2.97 lakh companies which were not filing their financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of two or more financial years. And, the RoC had removed the names of 2,26,166 companies as part of its crackdown on shell companies.

The Central government has also ordered probe into the real ownership of 68 companies which deposited and withdrew funds in an exceptional manner from bank accounts during the demonetization period.

In the last one year, 6,97,115 companies filed their financial statements, while 2,93,017 companies did not, informed the Minister. - IANS