Three states and one Union Territory — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi — account for nearly 70 per cent of the registered companies suspected to be dormant or defunct in the country.
The data compiled by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) reveals that as on July 31, these four had 106,287 companies which had not filed their annual returns or balance sheets with the registrar of companies (RoCs) for the past three years. The ministry considers such companies dormant and do not allow them to do any electronic filing of data.
In a reply to a written question in Parliament earlier this week, minister of state for corporate affairs R P N Singh had said the country’s business hub, Maharashtra, led the list of dormant companies with a figure of 35,154. Delhi had 27,972 companies in this category. Andhra and Tamil Nadu had 24,055 and 19,106, respectively.
MCA has launched an ‘easy exit scheme’ for companies inactive for the past three years. According to the latest figures, the ministry has struck off 29,000 defunct and inoperative companies from its registers. The ministry records say there were 10,29,363 private companies and 116,603 public ones registered with it as of July 25.