Over 15,000 non-compliant firms likely to lose registration in

Over 15,000 companies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are facing the threat of de-registration for non-compliance of rules, as part of the nationwide crackdown by the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Over 13,000 firms in both states have been issued notices as part of the exercise.

According to official sources at the Registrar of Companies (RoC) here, over 20,000 companies were deregistered last year due to non-compliance.

Both states have about 1.27 lakh companies registered with the RoC.

"Physical verification of some companies, which were flouting norms, is going on. About 15,659 companies which are not following rules have been identified. We will deregister them soon.

We are issuing first notices to another 13,554 companies which we feel are not adhering to norms. Some of them may rectify themselves before the mandatory final notice is issued," a senior official at the RoC told PTI.

Under Section 248 of the Company Law, the RoC has the power to remove a company from its list when the official believes that it has not been doing any business for the past two years, among other issues.

"If any premises has more than 25 companies and claims to maintain their registered office, we as a regulator verify their existence and their filings," he said.

RToC officials last week found 114 companies functioning from a registered office in Jubilee Hills under the name 'SRSR Advisory Services'.

The officials also inspected a site belonging to Navayuga Engineering.

The RoC official said this was a proactive action by the registrar to keep control of the companies registered under its jurisdiction and to save the investors.

"We are taking details from the central database about companies maintained from a single location. We are looking at non-compliance of the companies," he said.

He said there was no particular official deification for a "shell company" and the Government may soon come out with one.

The Ministry had struck off names of 2,17,239 companies nationwide from the records as of September 22, 2017 as they had not been carrying out business for a long period and have also defaulted on compulsory filings. More such firms are likely to face action.