INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - March 1^st - March 15^th - 2008

ONE LAKH COMPANIES LOSE REGISTRATION

The government has cancelled the registration of over one lakh companies for failing to file annual returns. There were about 7, 43,628 companies registered under the Companies Act till March 2007. However, only 3, 22,943 companies filed their annual returns till February this year, minister of corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. The same trend was seen in 2006 when out of 7, 32,169 registered companies, only over 2.94 lakh filed their annual returns for 2006-07. The government is taking action to ensure strict compliance of the Act, Mr Gupta said.