In its bid to promote environment friendly practices, the government has allowed the companies to cut their paper costs by sending annual reports and balance sheets to shareholders on e-mail.

In the letter circulated to the Registrar of Companies and Regional Directors, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has asked them to accept such mode of communication by companies as "paperless compliance".

"The Ministry has been receiving representations from various industry bodies to dispense with the sending physical Annual Report of a company, comprising of Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Account, Director's report, Auditor's Report, etc to its members as required under sections 219 of Companies Act, 1956."

"...and in lieu of the same the companies may be permitted to send the aforesaid documents by e-mail to it members," the MCA said in the circular.