151 Companies Dropped from 'Vanishing' List: Govt

Bangalore: The government said it has dropped a total of 151 companies from 'vanishing' list as they have started filing their financial statement with Registrars of Companies (ROC) as well as stock exchanges.

Minister of Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said 238 companies were initially identified as 'vanishing', of these 151 have been deleted from the list resulting into 87 falling under the category.

"...Names of 151 companies have since been deleted from the (vanishing) list as the companies started filing their balance sheets etc., with Registrars of Companies as well as stock exchanges and the criteria for treating a 'vanishing' is no longer applicable to them," he said.

Pilot said there are only 87 'vanishing' companies that remained untraced till date after having raised about Rs 342 crore through public issues.

The Minister said the government has been taking action against companies and their directors which disappear after raising money from public.

Besides, FIRs have been lodged with the police against all the 87 'vanishing' companies and their directors to trace their whereabouts and also to take action against them.

When asked whether Multi-Level Marketing company Amway is under the government's scanner, Pilot said he has not received any complaint against the company.

As per records, "there are seven companies incorporated with a prefix 'Amway', out of these seven companies, only one one company- Amway India Enterprises- is active and no complaint has been received against the said company in the Ministry," he said.

Meanwhile, Pilot also said Investor Awareness Programmes (IAPs) have been conducted by the ministry in association with professional institutes to educate investors about the various investment options.

These programmes covered various cities and towns across the country.

He further said a total of 7,617 IAPs have been conducted in the last two fiscal years and 14,877 investor grievances have been redressed during the period.