Agencies asked to complete investigation of suspicious company bank accounts in time-bound manner

The information pertains to bank account operations and post-demonetization transactions of some of the 2,09,032 suspicious companies that had been struck off the Register of Companies earlier this year.

It may be recalled that after being struck off, operation of the bank accounts of these 2,09,032 suspicious companies were restricted for discharge of their liabilities only, the Ministry said in its release.

These 13 banks have submitted their first instalment of data.

The data received from them pertains to merely about 5,800 companies (out of more than 2 lakh that were struck off) involving 13,140 accounts.

Few of the companies have been found to have more than 100 accounts to their names, the Ministry said.

The highest grosser among these is a company having 2,134 accounts.

According to the release, after separating the loan accounts, these companies were having a balance of Rs 22.05 crore to their credit on November 8, 2016.

However, from November 9, 2016 i.e. after the announcement of demonetization, till the date of their being struck off, these companies have altogether deposited Rs. 4,573.87 crore in their accounts and withdrawn Rs 4,552 crore.

With loan accounts, there was a negative opening balance of Rs 80.79 crore.

The Ministry in its release said that disturbing factors have been identified of companies having multiple accounts with minuscule or negative balance as on November 8, 2016 which have then deposited and withdrawn amounts going in several crores from these accounts.

The accounts were thereafter again left as dormant accounts with paltry balance.

The release mentioned that this exercise of swindling the authorities was carried out post demonetization till the companies were struck off. In some cases, certain companies have gone more adventurous and made deposits and withdrawals even after being struck off.

For example, in one of the banks, 429 companies having zero balance each as on November 8, 2016 have deposited and withdrawn over Rs 11 crore and left again with a cumulative balance of just Rs 42,000 as on the date of freezing.

In another bank, more than 3,000 such companies, most having multiple accounts, have been located.

From having a cumulative balance of about Rs. 13 crore as on November 8, 2016, these companies have deposited and withdrawn about Rs. 3,800 crore, leaving a negative cumulative balance of almost Rs 200 crore at the time of freezing of their accounts.

It needs to be re-emphasized, the Ministry said, that this data is only about 2.5% of the total number of suspected companies that have been struck off by the Central government.

The investigative agencies have been asked to complete necessary investigation in a time bound manner, the release said.