Names of over 3,300 companies to be deleted from records, highest in Maharashtra

Names of more than 3,300 companies are set to be removed from official records after the corporate affairs ministry received applications from them in this regard.
In April, the Registrar of Companies (RoC) of various states and Union territories issued public notices regarding striking off the names of these companies, according to news agency PTI.
This was done in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, to check if anyone has objections to the proposed removal of names.
Maharashtra accounts for more than 700 companies which have sought deletion of their names from records. Delhi is home to nearly 500 such firms, while more than 350 firms are in Karnataka, and over 200 each in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, among other places.

RoCs had received applications from the companies under Section 248(2) of the Companies Act for name removal on certain grounds, including that they failed to commence business within one year of their incorporation or that they were not carrying on any business or operation for a period of the two immediately preceding financial years.
Under Section 248(2), a firm is allowed to file an application to get its name removed, subject to certain conditions.

Official data showed that at the end of March, there were as many as 18,50,932 active companies out of the total 28,52,449 registered ones in the country.
Maharashtra (19 per cent) continued to lead with the highest number of active companies, followed by Delhi (14 per cent) and West Bengal (8 per cent). The number of active companies increased in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana as compared to the previous month.
On the other hand, among the Union territories, the number of active companies in Jammu and Kashmir went up by 143 in March from the previous month.