After striking off 70,000 shell firms, govt axe to fall on another 100,000

In the second phase of action against shell companies, the MCA is also trying to trace the directors of 'vanishing' companies

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has started working on the second phase of weeding out shell companies.

After sending show-cause notices to 225,000 companies, 70,000 have been struck off and another 100,000 will go soon, said a senior corporate affairs ministry official.

The first list of suspected shell companies had 300,000 entities.

Apart from striking them off, their bank accounts have been frozen and the corporate affairs ministry has begun to scrutinise their transactions.

A senior ministry official said: “We are trying to trace the directors of the vanishing companies. At present, there are about 70 of them that we