Govt strikes off names of 1 lakh companies this fiscal

The government has struck off the names of 1 lakh companies from the official records in the current fiscal as they have not been carrying out business activities for long.

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha that the term 'shell company' is not defined in the Companies Act, 2013.

Under the Act, the government can remove names of companies if they have not been carrying out any business for two immediate preceding financial years and have also not sought dormant status.

"The names of 2,26,166 and 1,00,150 companies have been struck off during financial year 2017-18 and 2018-19 (up to November 30, 2018), respectively, by the Registrar of Companies after following the prescribed procedures under the Companies Act, 2013," the minister said.

In recent times, the government has been taking steps to curb illicit fund flows and deregistration of companies that have not been doing any business activities for long is part of that larger efforts.