Finance ministry official Sheela Bhide in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, March 22: The east has the highest number of defunct companies in the country. The region accounts for 33 per cent of the 1.7-lakh defunct companies, said Sheela Bhide, joint secretary in the finance ministry’s department of company affairs (DCA).

Addressing a seminar on the simplified exit scheme (SES) for defunct companies and the benefits of computerisation, she said, of the 98,000 firms in the east, 56,000 are defunct. There are six lakh companies in the country.

Bhide said the response to the simplified exit scheme (SES) has not been encouraging. “Only 15,000 defunct companies have applied,” she said.

DCA is trying to make defunct companies aware of SES so that the department can weed out their records. The scheme closes on March 31.

The exit procedure has been simplified to provide companies, which never took off or did not carry on any significant business for a long time, an opportunity to remove their names without getting into costly wind-up proceedings.

DCA to float SPV

The DCA has decided to float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) along with National Stock Exchange, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. The SPV will run the department’s computerisation and modernisation programme.

The department has already worked out the model of the SPV. “We have to take permission from the cabinet for floating this SPV. Since the elections are round the corner, the process will take some time,” Bhide added.

Bhide said the DCA has undertaken a computerisation programme called DCA 21. The software will enable the companies to register online and make payments online.

The companies would not have to go to the office of the Registrar of Companies to file returns.

DCA will provide the facility to the companies to make payments through 200 branches of SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank and Punjab National Bank. The companies will be able to make payments through credit cards as well as debit cards.

DCA has invited bids for setting up the entire system on BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) basis.