2.26 lakh companies deregistered, Maharashtra tops the chart

NEW DELHI: The government today said that names of over 2.26 lakh companies have been struck off from Registrar of Companies for failing to comply with regulatory requirements, with Maharashtra accounting for most of these firms.

ROCs have identified 2.97 lakh companies during 2017-18 which were not filing their financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of two or more fiscals and, prima facie, were not conducting any business in operations, Minister of Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Out of such identified companies, ROCs have removed the names of 2,26,166 such companies as on December 12, 2017 from the register of companies by following the due process under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013," he added.


Section 248 of the Companies Act -- which is implemented by the corporate affairs ministry -- provides powers to strike off names of companies from the register on various grounds including for being inactive for long.

Out of the total deregistered firms, as many as 59,849 companies are from Maharashtra, followed by Delhi (43,925), Tamil Nadu (24,723), Karnataka (18,165), Telangana (16,817) and Gujarat (11,389).

"...the removal of names of the companies which are not in operation or conducting any business is a continuous process," he added.

Besides, the minister said that a total number of companies registered in the country at the end of November stood at 17,20,318. Of these, 5.36 lakh companies have been closed.

About the directors of the over 2.26 lakh firms, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary separately said that they would not be able to operate bank accounts of such companies till these entities are revived.

Further, he said that over 3 lakh directors have been identified as disqualified. This includes directors of these deregistered companies.