Over 6.8 lakh Indian companies shut so far: Government

New Delhi: A total of over 6.8 lakh companies have been closed across India till date, the Lok Sabha was told on Monday.

The number of closed companies account for 36.07 per cent of the total 18,94,146 companies that are registered under Registrar of Companies.

Out of the total 6,83,317 companies that have been shut, over 1.42 lakh were in Maharashtra, more than 1.25 lakh were in Delhi, over 67,000 were in West Bengal while no company was closed in Sikkim, the data showed.

Responding to a Lok Sabha query, Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has undertaken special drive for identification and striking off of the registered companies which have not filed their financial statements or annual returns in two preceding financial years.

Regarding details on steps taken by the government to cancel the registration of fake companies, she said "the term fake company is not defined under the Companies Act."                       

In a written response to a separate question, Sitharaman said a total of 2,448 companies were registered in the north eastern region between financial years 2016-2019.