4 lakh shell companies face de-registration over non-filing of I-T returns: Report

New Delhi: Over 4 lakh shell companies face deregistration over non-filing of I-T returns, as per a newspaper report.

A report in the Times of India said that notices were being sent out to over four lakh companies, which have failed to file returns for 2013-14 and 2014-15 starting last month.

“These companies have also not filed their returns for the 2015-16 financial year, but the window for filing has not completely shut down,” the TOI report said.

The government has given these companies 30 days to file the returns, failing which some could even get their names striked off.

“To ensure that the defunct companies are unable to undertake transactions, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) will make their names public and also share information about the companies and their directors with the income tax department, banks and the Reserve Bank of India,” the TOI said.

A government task force on action against shell companies last month decided to prosecute about 10 lakh such firms and prepare an Aadhaar-based KYC registry to check future black money generation through them.

The special task force, with members from various central probe and enforcement agencies, had also sought creation of new 'red flag indicators' by banks so that the elite Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) can effectively identify their transactions and activities and alert investigators.

Officials privy to the task force, created on directions of the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) in February, had said various agencies have been asked to provide information and cases of detection of shell firms, under the exclusive laws they enforce, to the Income Tax department so that it can register cases against them under the new Benami Transactions Act and the Income Tax Act and initiate prosecution cases in courts.

Cases which lead to black money stashed abroad will be booked under the new anti-black money Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, they said.

They said all the agencies have been asked to identify such firms by this month-end so that the tax department can subsequently take action.

With Agency Inputs