Government identified 2,38,223 companies as shell companies between 2018-2021

The phrase "Shell Company" is not defined under the Companies Act, but it usually refers to a company that has no active commercial operations or major assets and is used for illegal purposes such as tax evasion, money laundering, obscuring ownership, benami properties, and so on.

The Minister responded by saying that the government's Special Task Force on "Shell Companies" has advised using certain red flag signs as alerts for identifying Shell Companies, among others.

During the last three years, the government has conducted a Special Drive to identify and strike off Shell Companies, according to the Minister.

The Minister presented the following list of the total number of firms stricken off under Section 248 per State/Union Territory: 

Name of the State/ UT	No. of Struck off Companies
	2018 to June 2021
RoC-Ahmedabad	9243
RoC-Andaman	41
RoC-Bangalore	11185
RoC-Chandigarh	4908
RoC-Chennai	11217
RoC-Chhattisgarh	947
RoC-Coimbatore	2992
RoC-Cuttack	3731
RoC-Delhi	45595
RoC-Ernakulam	9189
RoC-Goa	597
RoC-Gwalior	4920
RoC-HimachalPradesh	858
RoC-Hyderabad	20488
RoC-Jaipur	9222
RoC-Jammu	393
RoC-Jharkhand	1848
RoC-Kanpur	15803
RoC-Kolkata	15022
RoC-Mumbai	52869
RoC-Patna	4683
RoC-Pondicherry	191
RoC-Pune	5552
RoC-Shillong	1256
RoC-Uttarakhand	555
RoC-Vijayawada	4918
Total	238223