Jemima Oware
THE OFFICE of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has cautioned business owners nationwide to file their annual returns by December 30, 2022 or risk being taken off the register.
In a statement issued on Monday, the ORC stated that it had identified some 2,584 companies as dormant and defaulting, and may face removal should they fail to file their annual returns by the said date.
The move comes as the second phase of a clean-up exercise by the ORC which began early this year to rid the register of businesses that fail to file their annual tax returns as required of them by the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992).
“The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) wishes to inform its stakeholders, the business community and the public that, the Office has begun the process to continue striking off 2,584 dormant and defaulting companies from its companies’ register. The exercise which will continue to the end of December 2022, is part of the second phase of the clean-up exercise which began in the early part of the year,” the statement said.
The Office of the Registrar of Companies, the statement indicated, had already taken off some 2,788 companies out of the over 100,000 dormant companies identified during the first phase of the clean-up exercise, making them inactive.
The affected companies include private/public companies limited and unlimited by shares, private/public companies limited by guarantee (schools, churches, associations, unions, fun clubs etc.), professional bodies and external companies.
“This means that those dormant companies cannot be electronically searched on or carry out any changes on their company information in the register awaiting a full winding up after 12 years,” the statement added.
“Such companies can only be restored by an Order of the High Court to the ORC within 12 years after the publication of the strike off in the companies’ bulletin.”
The ORC thus urged all defaulting and dormant companies in operation or not, to file their annual returns by December 30, 2022, to avoid being affected by the move.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah