NEW DELHI - India has frozen the bank
accounts of 209,032 suspected shell companies as part of a
crackdown on illegal transactions and tax evasion, the finance
ministry said on Tuesday.
The latest action against shell companies - which have no
active business operations or assets - comes months after
authorities ordered nearly 200 000 such firms to be shut down.
Under the order, the owners and their nominated signatories
will not be able to operate bank accounts until such companies
are legally restored, the ministry said in a statement.
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"The department of financial services has ... advised all
banks that they should take immediate steps to put restrictions
on bank accounts of such struck off companies," the statement
said.
Tax officials say the owners of shell companies create
elaborate smokescreens, including naming personal servants and
chauffeurs as board directors, to obscure the ultimate
beneficiaries, conceal political investment, evade tax, commit
fraud or manipulate tenders.
In his Independence Day address on Aug 15, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi described such firms as "looters of the nation's
wealth".