By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE GOVERNMENT is losing at least $54.4 million annually because thousands of limited liability companies do not file their annual statutory returns, the Office of the Registrar of Companies said yesterday.
Shellie Leon, deputy chief executive officer and director of operations at the Office of the Registrar of Companies, told The Gleaner that of the estimated 60,000 registered companies - 27,000 of which are active - only about 8,000 were honouring their obligation to pay over their fees for Registered Office Notice, Particulars of Directors and Annual Returns.
"We are not here to make a profit but to at least cover our expenses and if persons refuse to file their annual returns, then we will not be able to do that," Ms. Leon said.
SERIOUS CHALLENGES
She said efforts to reduce the number of companies which were in breach of the registrar's regulation were challenging. "The Office of the Registrar of Companies is not one of the companies listed on the requirement for the TCC (Tax Compliance Certificate) and that is affecting us adversely," she explained.
Ms. Leon disclosed that the ORC has had to limit its projections in its corporate plan for the 2004/05 financial year, because of inadequate funds. do, we have machines which we need to change to make the service better and we can't do all of these things unless people file (their statutory returns)," she said.
Last year, some 400 lawsuits were filed in the Supreme Court against delinquent companies with December alone accounting for 70 cases. "But the court can take so much and no more."
According to Ms. Leon, some persons did not obey the court orders to pay their outstanding returns. She said the ORC was now moving to obtain warrants of commitments for company directors who disobeyed the court orders.
She could not provide details on the number of companies in each parish which did not file their annual returns but said the highest incidents were in Kingston and St. Andrew and St. James.
According to her, the government now needed to ensure that strategies were implemented to address the problem.
Ms. Leon said that several companies had already been struck from the list of registered companies for not making statutory returns but some continued to operate. As a result, she said, many other companies had entered into transactions with them, ignorant of their illegitimacy.
