New Delhi: The government on Friday said it has identified over 2.25 lakh companies and 7,191 LLPs which have not submitted the requisite financial report for 2015-16 and 2016-17, and they may be struck off during the current fiscal year.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has already struck off over 2.26 lakh companies for not filing of financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of 2 years or more.
Also, over 3.09 lakh directors were disqualified for not filing financial statements or annual returns for preceding three years (2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16).
"For the second drive to be launched during 2018-19), 2,25,910 companies have been further identified for being struck off under section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013...for non-filing of financial statements for 2015-16 and 2016-17," a finance ministry statement said.
These companies and LLPs will be given an opportunity of being heard by way of notices regarding their default and the proposed action.
"Appropriate action will be taken after considering their response," the statement said.
A task force headed by Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and MCA Secretary Injeti Srinivas was set up in February 2017 to check the menace of shell companies through a coordinated, multi-agency approach.
The task force has compiled a database of shell companies and classified them into three categories-- Confirmed list, Derived list and Suspect list.
The Confirmed List has a total of 16,537 confirmed shell companies from the information received from the various law enforcement agencies of the companies found to be involved in illegal activities.
The Derived List has 16,739 companies identified from 100 percent common directorships with the confirmed shell companies.
The Suspect List has 80,670 shell companies and has been drawn up by SFIO using specific red flag indicators by the task force.
The task force has directed all member of law enforcement agencies to send to Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the details of action taken against Chartered Accountants by them, the statement said.