NEW DELHI: The Centre has said that in the last five years more than 5.57 lakh companies were struck off the records due to non-compliance with various provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, 

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh today said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that 5,57,055 companies were struck off under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with the Companies (Removal of Names of Companies from the Register of Companies) Rules, 2016 in the country in the last five years.

According to Singh, the term ‘shell company’ was not defined under the Act. It normally referred to a company without active business operation or significant assets, which in some cases are used for illegal purposes, such as tax evasion, money laundering, obscuring ownership and Benami properties, he added.

The minister also said that the special task force set up by the government to look into the issue of 'shell companies' had inter alia recommended the use of certain red-flag indicators as alerts for the identification of shell companies.