Putting the onus of delaying the Companies Bill on the government, Parliament Standing Committee on Finance said on Friday that it would try its best to give a report on the legislation in the Budget session.
“… we have the Company’s Bill which also needs immediate attention,” said panel Chairman Yashwant Sinha. “I will try (to give the report in the Budget session) for the Company’s Bill also (together with Direct Taxes Code Bill),” Sinha told Business Standard.
After DTC Bill, Sinha said, the panel will take up the Constitutional Amendment Bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The empowered group of state finance ministers on GST will meet in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss issues related to compensation for Central sales tax.
As for the need for the standing committee to again vet the Company’s Bill when it had given its recommendations in 2010, the former finance minister put the blame on the government.
Sinha said, “I will say attitude on the part of the government (was responsible for the matter). We gave our report on this huge, humongous piece of legislation in the monsoon session of Parliament in 2010. And then, we waited. It was brought after 16 months in the last winter session.”
The government said it considered the report of the standing committee, and took on board suggestions of other stakeholders. “You don’t do that in our parliamentary practice, because that is what the standing committee is supposed to do,” Sinha said. If the government opens the issue again and takes into account the representation of other stakeholders, he said, then it would be an unending process.
The BJP told the government that this was a new Bill, which should, therefore, go back to the standing committee, he added.
On the basis of the report submitted by the panel, the government agreed to incorporate 157 of the 178 amendments, but it brought 22 new changes. The revised Companies Bill was tabled last year in the winter session of Parliament.
