NEW DELHI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- India has deregistered over 200,000 private companies in the country for failing to comply with statutory compliances.

A total of 2,26,166 companies have been identified and removed from the register of companies for not filing their annual financial statements for a continuous period of two or more financial years, the Indian Finance Ministry said in a statement Friday.

More than 300,000 directors were also disqualified for non-filing of financial statements for a continuous period of immediately preceding three financial years, it added.

These directors of the deregistered companies have also been restricted from operating the bank accounts of these firms and they cannot withdraw any amount from these accounts, other than for specified purposes, till the company is restored, the ministry said.

The decision to deregister the companies was taken by the Task Force on Shell Companies which was constituted in February last year as part of the Indian government's crackdown on corruption and black money, post-demonetization in November 2016.