SECP marks 39,704 companies inactive for 4 years of missed filings: no new bank accounts or director changes

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has marked 39,704 companies as "Inactive by Registrar" because they have not filed their annual returns or financial statements for four years, Business Recorder reported on Saturday.

That is about one in eight of the 317,002 companies registered in Pakistan at the end of September.

What "inactive" means for a company

The status sits in SECP's system and is visible to banks and other institutions. An inactive company:

• cannot open a new bank account
• cannot use other financial services
• cannot register a change of directors

ProPakistani reported that existing bank accounts of these companies will stay frozen. The way back is to file every overdue annual return and set of accounts with SECP, after which the company can regain active status. SECP has not published a deadline.

Where the companies are

Why SECP did it

The Companies Act, 2017 requires every company to file an annual return and, where it applies, financial statements, so the public record of who owns and runs it stays current. "Prolonged non-filing weakens the corporate register and can hinder efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing," SECP said. Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said "a clean and credible registry is the bedrock of trust in the corporate sector."

If you own or direct a company

1. Log in to SECP's eServices portal and check your company's status.
2. File the missing annual returns and accounts for each year, with the late fees the portal shows.
3. Keep the company's and your own FBR returns in order too, since banks check both. Our income tax calculator works out personal tax for this year.

Registration itself keeps growing: SECP registered 43,559 new companies last financial year, 24% more than the year before, and almost all of them online.

Related

• SECP registered 5,241 new companies in September
• SECP sets up a Corporate Intelligence Unit