The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has cancelled registration of 4,432 inactive or non-operative companies during 2017-18. According to the latest SECP data, the Commission has disposed of 4,443 cases of dissolution of companies during 2017-18. Of these, 11 companies wound up voluntarily and 4,432 companies were struck off from the register of the SECP.
Under section 425 of the Companies Act, the Registrar of the SECP is empowered to remove names of defunct companies from register of the Commission. Where the SECP registrar has reasonable ground to believe that a company is not carrying on business or is not in operation, he may remove names of the companies from the register and subsequently the companies will be dissolved. The whole process is completed after fulfillment of legal formalities under section 425 of the Companies Act.
During 2017-18, the SECP registered a total 11,370 new companies, 37 percent more against the year 2016-17. The total number of registered companies reached 87,620 during 2017-18. Approximately 80 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, 18 percent were registered as single-member companies and two percent companies got registration as public unlisted, associations not-for-profit, trade organizations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership.
The trading sector took a lead with the incorporation of 1,688 companies, followed by services with 1,632, information technology with 1,375, construction with 1310, tourism with 571, food and beverages 401, engineering with 373, corporate agricultural farming with 340, education with 330, real estate development with 311, transport with 215, pharmaceutical with 203, textile with 186, communication with 173, healthcare with 172, auto and allied with 161, fuel and energy with 160, broadcasting and telecasting with 135, mining and quarrying with 124, chemical with 113, cable and electric goods with 107, logging with 105 power generation &, paper and board with 102 each, and 981 companies in other sectors, the SECP added.