Hyderabad: The Registrar of Companies under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has shut down 35,741 shell companies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as on August 2018.
After Maharashtra, that tops the country for most number of shell companies shut down, followed by Tamil Nadu, TS stands third for the highest number of shell companies that were shut down with the directors or promoters disqualified for five years.
Shell companies are those which fail to file their statement of accounts or financial statements with the RoC for 2 or 3 consecutive years.
As part of a crackdown against blank money the Central government had closed down 2, 26,000 firms in 2017-18 and 2,25,000 in 2016-17, while the corporate affairs ministry says another 38,858 companies are in the process of being removed.
The list of companies that were shut down as on August 29, 2018 include, Indo Biotech Hybrid Seeds, Desu Agro Farm, Kaveli Garden and Orchards, Vision Estates, King Fish Aqua Farm, Seguro Oil Drilling, Surya Stone Crushers, Goldstone Granites and PSN Mineral. A majority of companies shut down were operating in seeds, granites, and farming resources.
A source in the RoC told this newspaper, “Under Section 248(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 , 20,082 companies were struck off in 2016-17 and 15,659 in 2017-18, in total 35,741 shell companies were closed down. A few of them had failed to commence business within one year of their incorporation or were not carrying on any business or operation for a period of two immediately preceding financial years. Many had failed to file their financial statements for two consecutive years.”
“Wherever any unusual or suspicious transaction was found to have taken place post demonetization, necessary action of inquiry, inspection and investigation was also initiated,” the source added.
