Government braces for corporate legislation

The Bill to introduce the new Companies Act will be brought out soon.

The company affairs ministry is hopeful of pushing through all the major legislation on corporate laws this year.

While the Bill to amend the Competition Act would be tabled in Parliament in the Budget session, the draft bill on the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) legislation would be referred to the advisory committee headed by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla.

"The Bill to introduce the new Companies Act will be brought out soon," Prem Chand Gupta, minister of company affairs, said at a seminar. The new companies legislation is being vetted by the law ministry.

On the recent IPO scam being investigated by market regulator SEBI and RBI, Gupta said, "We will look if there was any violation of the Companies Act."

He added, "We will introduce the Competition (Amendment) Bill in the Budget session of Parliament as the government is making amendments regarding the selection panel and selection process. and existing and future appointments."

The draft bill to introduce the LLP legislation would be referred to the National Advisory Committee set up by the ministry.

The committee headed by Kumar Mangalam Birla includes corporate lawyer Lalit Bhasin, Income Tax Settlement Commission member B Swarup, former deputy governor of RBI S P Talwar and Prof S P Narang.

Speaking on accounting standards, Gupta said the Centre would notify the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS), which had suggested that the accounting standards (AS) prescribed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) be adopted under the Companies Act.

The minister asked the corporate sector to follow fair corporate disclosure norms.

"The financial statements should not only be made out correctly and truthfully, but not give any misleading impression," he said.

The government was working to ensure that the cost of compliance was reasonable and the disclosure requirements adequate.