Over 74,600 companies set up in first eight months of 2017

As many as 74,650 new companies were registered across the country in the first eight months of this year, according to official data.

At the end of August, there were little over 11.34 lakh active companies while registration of more than 4.75 lakh firms were cancelled for being inactive for long.

Latest data published by the corporate affairs ministry, which is implementing the Companies Act, showed that 74,650 new firms were set up during the January-August 2017 period.

In August alone, 9,413 companies were registered while the maximum number of registrations during the eight-month period happened in March when the number stood at 11,293.

"The total number of companies registered in the country as on August 31, 2017, stood at 1,687,745. Of the 516,565 companies were closed; 1,084 companies were assigned dormant status as per the Companies Act, 2013...," the ministry said in its monthly information bulletin.

At the end of last month, 29,684 companies were in the process of being struck-off, the data showed.

In terms of economic activity, over 3.29 lakh companies were in business services, followed by manufacturing (2.34 lakh), trading (1.52 lakh) and construction (1.04 lakh) as on August 31.

Business services include information technology, research and development and other business activities such as law, audit and accounts and consultancy.

As per the data, out of the 11.26 lakh active companies limited by shares, more than 10.55 lakh entities were private entities. Among the 71,762 public companies, 64,474 were unlisted at the end of August.

While a substantial number of new firms are getting registered every month, the government has started striking off the names of companies that have been inactive for long as part of larger efforts to curb the black money menace.