Deregistration of defunct firms: RoC list in Jan

After the 'simplified exit scheme' floated for the de-registration of defunct companies ends on December 31, office of the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Maharashtra, would be preparing a list of those companies that haven't availed of the scheme and have also not submitted their balance sheets or annual returns for the past ten years.

The list would be put up before the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) for possible de-registration of these firms.

This was revealed by the RoC, Maharashtra, Vijayan Menon, while interacting with newsmen on the sidelines of a lecture meeting organised jointly by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).

Menon said that since its introduction only 650 companies had availed of the scheme.

However, the number of applications were expected to rise during December when the offer comes to a close.

"Once the scheme ends we will tackle the issue of those companies which have gone defunct but have not been included in the plan. As a result our office will look into the case of every such company which has ceased activities and not submitted returns. There is no point in continuing to have such organisations registered," said Menon.

However, he mentioned that dealing with such firms is a rather tricky issue.

Only those firms which have no assets and no liabilities are eligible for the exit scheme. But there would be several companies which are defunct and yet have a certain amount of unpaid liabilities, he said.

The liabilities have to be cleared before the name is struck-off. So all such aspects about pending liabilities would be considered and methods evolved for de-registration, he added.

Earlier during his lecture the officer elaborated on various difficulties in registration of companies.

He said, almost 30 per cent of applications are rejected for want of a name. In several cases the name applied for is already existing or it is too general. The name should also suggest the activities to be undertaken by the company, he said.