Asserting that Companies that have not filed annual returns and balance sheet to Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) for past five years have been put on notice, a senior official of MCA today said there were 80,000 such companies in Northern India.

"About 80000 defaulters (defaulting companies) are there in northern India. There are various type of defaulters and most of them are defaulters due to failure to submit annual statement and balance sheets of the companies.

But we are taking strict action now", the ministry's Regional Director, Northern Region, B K Bansal told reporters. "These companies were filing only even-based information with the MCA as per their convenience and not filing annual returns. We have sent them notices in past two months and have now blocked them," Bansal said.

He further said that MCA has taken steps for compliance management by the companies to ensure they file their annual returns and balance sheets duly audited in time.

Companies that have failed to file annual returns with MCA for past five years have been barred from filing any further documents with regard to benefits, he said.

Bansal said Companies are now registered by the ROC within 24 hours of filing of complete documents. MCA has launched drive for withdrawal of prosecution cases filed wrongly against companies and directors, if any, he said.

He said the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is now fully e-governed and registers almost all the documents in new state of art e-governance project - State through Process (STP).

"It means that all the documents once it is uploaded through internet and fee is paid, will be registered immediately through STP mode by ROC office", he said.