Union Minister of State for Law & Justice and Corporate Affairs Shri P.P. Chaudhary said in Lok Sabha today that during financial year 2018-19, a total of 2,25,910 companies have been identified for action under Section 248 of the Act on the basis of non- filing of due returns for the financial Year 2015-16 & 2016-17. Due procedure shall be followed by ROCs before striking off names of companies.

Shri Chaudhary further said that during 2017-18 the Registrars of Companies (ROCs) had identified 2.97 lakh companies which were not filing their Financial Statements or Annual Returns for a continuous period of two or more financial years and, prima facie, either were not conducting any business or were not in operation. Out of such identified companies, Registrars of Companies (ROCs) removed the names of 2,26,166 such companies from the register of companies by following the due process under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013. Further, the Central Government has ordered investigation into the true ownership of 68 number of companies under section 216 read with section 210(1) (c) of the Act, which have deposited and withdrawn fund in an exception manner from the bank accounts during demonetization period.

This was stated by Union Minister of State for Law & Justice and Corporate Affairs Shri P.P. Chaudhary in Lok Sabha today.

DETAILS OF THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES WHICH HAVE FILED AS WELL AS NOT FILED THEIR FINANCIAL STATEMENT DURING THE LAST ONE YEAR IN STATE/UT-WISE ARE AS UNDER:

Sl. No.	Region (State, Province, County)	Financial Statement filed	Financial Statement not filed	Annual Return filed	Annual Return not filed
1	Andaman & Nicobar	145	80	149	78
2	Andhra Pradesh	8,197	8,709	8,168	8,708
3	Arunachal Pradesh	106	80	106	80
4	Assam	4,271	1,286	4,290	1,262
5	Bihar	8,009	6,768	8,080	6,699
6	Chandigarh	4,718	2,403	4,767	2,358
7	Chattisgarh	4,587	1,450	4,598	1,436
8	Daman and Diu	170	43	169	43
9	Delhi	140,519	46,204	141,270	45,472
10	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	264	90	267	88
11	Goa	2,625	1,004	2,638	992
12	Gujarat	40,700	14,206	40,747	14,167
13	Himachal Pradesh	1,707	1,140	1,743	1,110
14	Haryana	16,032	7,050	16,108	6,991
15	Jharkhand	4,618	2,846	4,659	2,818
16	Jammu & Kashmir	1,143	856	1,157	842
17	Karnataka	37,213	13,594	37,392	13,452
18	Kerala	15,856	9,165	15,974	9,062
19	Lakshadweep	4	6	3	7
20	Maharashtra	136,335	62,001	137,122	61,149
21	Meghalaya	380	151	389	143
22	Manipur	143	109	145	107
23	Madhya Pradesh	13,851	4,653	13,954	4,578
24	Mizoram	23	20	23	20
25	Nagaland	93	92	93	92
26	Orissa	7,933	4,253	7,990	4,203
27	Punjab	10,213	4,559	10,274	4,508
28	Pondicherry	596	461	608	451
29	Rajasthan	24,204	7,766	24,222	7,745
30	Telangana	29,975	27,383	30,094	27,230
31	Tamil Nadu	40,992	22,649	41,004	22,619
32	Tripura	120	110	122	106
33	Uttar Pradesh	34,843	18,173	34,982	18,049
34	Uttarakhand	2,360	1,058	2,372	1,047
35	West Bengal	104,169	22,599	104,038	22,695
Total	Overall Result	697,115	293,017	699,718	290,407

Company strike-off for non-filing: procedural removal and ownership probes follow sustained failure to file annual returns and statements. Authorities identified large numbers of companies failing to file financial statements and annual returns for successive years and initiated strike-off proceedings, with Registrars of Companies required to follow prescribed procedural safeguards before removing names. Concurrently, targeted investigations into true ownership and exceptional bank account transactions during the demonetization period have been ordered to probe irregular financial conduct.