Over 200 public sector undertakings (PSUs) do not have a company secretary on their rolls even though they are mandated to have one, the government informed Parliament on Thursday. “As per information available, 233 PSUs have not appointed a company secretary,” Salman Khursheed, minister for corporate affairs, said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Although the names of these PSUs were not disclosed by the minister, a senior official said on condition of anonymity that the defaulting companies essentially consisted of lossmaking entities and did not include the navratnas. “Public sector units are unable to appoint company secretaries due to the financial position of such entities and non-availability of suitable company secretaries,” the government’s reply added.
However, commenting on the minister’s statement, a senior official in the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) said there was no shortage of registered company secretaries in the country.
