Over 90% firms surveyed filed returns: CSO on NSSO report

The statement comes against the backdrop of a technical report of Services Sector Enterprises in India released by the NSSO, which said a large number of units forming part of MCA 21 database, used in computing GDP, were either not identifiable or traceable in the field.

New Delhi: Amid concerns raised over growth numbers in the wake of an NSSO report, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Thursday said out of the 19,317 companies actually surveyed in 74th NSS round survey, returns had been filed by 91.5 per cent companies.

The statement comes against the backdrop of a technical report of Services Sector Enterprises in India released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), which said a large number of units forming part of MCA 21 database, used in computing GDP, were either not identifiable or traceable in the field.

MCA 21 is an electronic repository of corporate filings and is maintained by the corporate affairs ministry.

From the key findings of the technical report of the round survey, it emerged that 16.4 per cent of the companies registered with MCA was non-traceable or closed, and 21.4 per cent misclassified on the ground, CSO said in a clarification on the usage of MCA corporate database with regards to National Accounts Statistics.

It said from the 35,456 companies included in the 74th Round, around 86.5 per cent companies had filed their returns in the MCA database and only 622 were untraceable in MCA, perhaps due to change of Corporate Identification Number (CIN) etcetra.

In the context of Gross Value Added (GVA) estimation in respect of private corporate sector (PCS), out of the 4,235 units categorised as not traceable at the given address in the 74th Round, around 3,154 units had actually filed returns online on the MCA portal.

Similarly, out of the 7,573 companies categorised out-of-coverage (i.e. not engaged in the production of any service), 6,767 had filed returns online.

From the 2,428 companies categorised as a casualty, 1,854 companies had filed returns online.

"Interestingly, out of the 19,317 companies actually surveyed in 74th Round, returns had been filed by 17,668 (91.5 per cent) companies," the CSO said.

It further said it may be noted that the filing of returns by corporate with MCA is a continuous process.

For the purposes of National Accounts Estimates (GDP), CSO said the returns actually filed by the corporate under MCA is duly taken into account and the scaling up factor for the paid-up-capital for the non-response is low.

"The key findings of this NSS survey gives a better insight on the challenges that will be faced when the Annual Survey of Services Sector is launched and assist in designing strategies to address them and improve quality," it said.

It is, however, reiterated that the findings of the NSS 74th Round survey will have an insignificant impact on the National Accounts estimates, CSO added.