NEW DELHI: A total of 3,552 foreign companies and subsidiaries of foreign companies have been closed in the country between 2017 and 2022, the government informed parliament recently.
Responding to a query from a member, minister of state in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh recently said in the Rajya Sabha that the reasons for closure of foreign companies in India vary from company to company.
“The closure of operations of a company is a business decision peculiar to each company which may include factors such as cessation of operation of branch office, expiration of validity of permission/licence etc. granted by the Reserve Bank of India, not starting its operation due to change of business policy of the parent company, foreign company establishing a private limited company in India, closure of parent company, closure of liaison office/branch office in India on completion of project of parent company,” said the minister in his response.
According to him, there are 14,137 active foreign subsidiaries operating in the country. The minister was responding to the query raised by a member on closure of operations by foreign automobile companies in India.
So far, four foreign auto companies – Harley Davidson, General Motors, Ford and UM Motorcycles – have shut their operations in India. When asked if 64,000 jobs have been lost in India because of foreign automobile companies shutting operations in India and around R2,500 crore investments were lost due to exit of foreign auto companies, the minister said that the government has no such data with it.
Four foreign auto cos shut operations
So far, four foreign auto firms – Harley Davidson, General Motors, Ford and UM Motorcycles – have shut their operations in India. However, the government says it has no record of loss of jobs and investments due to these exits.