Alhaji Garba Abubakar, Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has urged registered companies to always file returns to the commission to avoid deregistration.

Abubakar, who gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, stressed that it was not enough that people register companies; they must equally file returns as required by law.

The registrar-general explained that it was through return filing by companies that the commission was able to know which companies are active and which ones were inactive.

” You must do what the law says you must do, you have to file your returns, we have categorised companies into what we call active or inactive.

” It is not enough that people registered companies, there is the need to always file returns to achieve meaningful growth.

“Companies that have filed returns up to date are active. Those that have not filed returns up to date, we have classified them as inactive.

“This is creating lots of problems for most of them, because if you are applying for a Visa using a company account, no Embassy will give you a Visa, until you update your record with the CAC,” he stated.

He said hitherto, companies that are actually making money everyday do not bother to file returns to the commission., adding that ”because there is no way for a third party to know whether such a company is active or not.”

Abubakar said that CAC would prioritise filing of returns as one of the ways to also improve its internally generated revenue.

He also said that such priority would be designed to compel registered companies to comply with the policy or be deregistered.

“The law has made deregistration more cumbersome now, hitherto if you have reasonable cause to believe that your company is not carrying out business operations, you can just write to the company.

“If they respond fine, if they do not send a second letter, you can strike them off. The law now says it must be five-years. You have to wait for five years.

“We hope companies will update their records, after 18 months if you do not file your next return, then it will go back to inactive, so the revenue will continue to grow,” he added.

The registrar-general attributed the success recorded by the commission in terms of revenue growth to the current practice of looking inwards to improve its revenue.

He identified income generation from the new registration system, increase in share capital, and administration of charges that were mortgaged to be a major source of success achieved. (NAN)

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