COVID-19 fallout: Over 10,000 firms voluntarily shut operations during Apr 2020-Feb 2021, says govt

More than 10,000 companies closed down voluntarily in India between April 2020 and February 2021, a period when the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns had substantially disrupted economic activities.

10,113 companies were crossed-out under Section 248 (2) of the Companies Act, 2013, in the current financial year till February, according to the latest data available with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA).

"A total of 10,113 companies during the year 2020-21 (from the month of April 2020 to February 2021) have been struck off under Section 248 (2) of the Act. MCA has not run any drive to strike off companies suo moto during 2020-21," Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Monday, in response to a query on state-wise data around registered companies that have gone out of business during FY2020-21.

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Overall, 2,394 companies were struck off in Delhi, followed closely by Uttar Pradesh at 1,936. As many as 1,322 companies were shut down in Tamil Nadu while this number stood at 1,279 in Maharashtra.

Karnataka saw shutting down of 836 companies, while it was 501 in Chandigarh, 479 in Rajasthan, 404 in Telangana, 307 in Kerala, 137 in Jharkhand, 111 in Madhya Pradesh, and 104 in Bihar, the data showed.

88 companies had shut shop in Meghalaya, 78 in Odisha, 47 in Chhattisgarh, 36 in Goa, 31 in Pondicherry, 17 in Gujarat, 4 in West Bengal, and 2 in Andaman and Nicobar, according to the data.  

In the wake of the pandemic, the central government had imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March 2020 to curb the spread of coronavirus infections and the restrictions began to be eased in May that year. In later months, many states had also imposed restrictions on movements amid spiraling coronavirus cases.

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(With inputs from PTI.)