| In a reply to the parliamentary standing committee on finance, the company affairs ministry said that it was likely to file prosecutions under IPC shortly. The ministry of law is examining the issue. |
| The serious frauds investigation office (SFIO) is expected to get more teeth to effectively book fraudsters under the IPC. The SFIO currently investigates violations under the Companies Act. The number of cases referred to the SFIO have gradually gone up to 26. |
| The ministry's effort at outsourcing investigations to chartered accountancy firms has not succeeded with firms unwilling to certify that they will have no dealing with the company they are going to investigate. |
| The committee also expressed concern over the fact that 50 per cent of the companies were not filing their statutory returns as the punishment and the penalty was very low. |
| The J J Irani committee appointed by the ministry to give recommendations on the proposed overhaul of the Companies Act is also addressing the issue. |
| Komal Anand, secretary, ministry of company affairs, in her submission to the committee, said a distinctive identification number would be issued to make it easy to trace non-filing of returns by companies when e-filing of returns becomes applicable under the 'MCA 21' project. |
| The ministry is considering a proposal to increase the posts in the investigation wing to 112 from 49 with a view to increase the number of inspections being done. |
| Only 0.2 per cent of 6.52 lakh companies were inspected in 2004-05. |
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