8,648 firms opt to strike off names from Registrar of Companies list by July 2025

The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs has struck off the names of 8,648 companies from the Registrar of Companies list till July 16 in the current financial year, the ministry has informed the Lok Sabha. The list includes 1,763 companies from Maharashtra and 1,350 firms from Delhi. 

The deregistration was sought by the companies themselves, as Section 248(2) of the Companies Act, 2013, provides an option for companies to voluntarily seek removal of their name from the Registrar of Companies after extinguishing all their liabilities. Karnataka (871), Gujarat (541), Haryana (360), and Andhra Pradesh (136) were the states that saw many companies deciding to opt for voluntary deregistration.

In 2023, the government had brought in changes in the Companies Act, 2013, to encourage voluntary liquidation of companies to facilitate ‘ease of doing business.’ A Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) has also been established to centralise and speed up the voluntary strike-off process of companies under Section 248(2) of the Companies Act, 2013. From August 2024, the ministry has also empowered C-PACE to process e-forms related to striking off Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) firms too in a similar fashion.

The number of companies that opted to deregister was 16,464 in 2023-24. In 2024-25, 15,837 companies shut down themselves using this route. In a written reply to a Lok Sabha question, Harsh Malhotra, Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, stated that this exercise is different from the strike-off drive the ministry carries out from time to time under section 248(1) of the Act to shut down companies that have not carried on any business or operation for a period of two immediately preceding financial years and have not made any application within such period for obtaining the status of a dormant company under section 455 of the Act. Companies that have not paid the subscription they had undertaken to pay at the time of incorporation of a company and those that have not filed a declaration to this effect within 180 days of its incorporation can also get struck off during such government-driven exercises. The last strike-off drive was carried out in the year 2022-23.