New Delhi: As part of the massive crackdown on shell companies, over 4 lakh companies are likely to face deregistration for their failure in filing returns for three financial years.
As per reports it is learnt that starting last month notices have been sent to these companies which have not filed their returns for 2013-14 and 2014-15 as also for 2015-16 financial year, however the window for filing returns for 2015-16 has not completely shut down yet.
The government has been granted a 30-day period to these companies within which they need 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 report 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 Minister’s 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.
