<span style="color: #222222;">A total number of three lakh 82 thousand 581 companies were struck off during the last three years. This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.<br />''<br />''He informed that the government has undertaken a special drive for identification and strike off the shell companies. Shell companies refer to a company without active business operation or significant assets, which in some cases are used for illegal purposes such as tax evasion, money laundering, benami properties.</span><br />