NEW DELHI: The government’s crackdown on shell companies has unearthed about Rs 17,000 crore that was moved in and out of bank accounts after demonetisation According to information from 56 banks, details of such transactions were gleaned from 58,000 bank accounts belonging to 35,000 deregistered companies.In one instance, a company with a negative balance on November 8, 2016, when the note ban was announced, subsequently deposited and withdrew Rs 2,484 crore, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said in a statement on Sunday. One company had 2,134 bank accounts. The government has deregistered about 2.24 lakh companies that were inactive for over two years or had defaulted on regulatory compliance.Restrictions have been imposed on their bank accounts and on the sale or transfer of their movable and immovable property.A special task force constituted by the Prime Minister’s Office led jointly by the revenue secretary and the corporate affairs secretary has met five times and initiated action against defaulting firms, which is expected to help in the drive against black money.The government has shared information of such companies with the enforcement authorities including Central Board of Direct Taxes , Financial Intelligence Unit and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for further action.The government has also disqualified over three lakh directors of companies that failed to file financial statements and/or annual returns for the three years ended March 2016. Over 3,000 disqualified directors were on the boards of more than 20 companies each, exceeding the prescribed limit, the ministry said.An exercise is under way to link director identification numbers with Permanent Account Numbers and Aadhaar for new applications and existing data.To address criminality, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office has been directed to arrest “any person believed to be guilty of any fraud punishable under the Act.”Section 477 of the Companies Act defines fraud and prescribes punishment including imprisonment up to 10 years. The finance ministry has been asked to include such fraud as a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.To prevent abuse of corporate structures through multi-layering, the government has set a limit of not more than two layers beyond the wholly owned subsidiary.A high-level committee has been constituted to suggest how to revamp the disciplinary systems of chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants.A National Financial Reporting Authority is being set up as an independent body to check financial statements and take disciplinary action against errant professionals.