The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has circulated the final draft of the new Com-panies Bill to all the minist-ries and cabinet members and will come before the cabinet for approval within the next 20-25 days, M Veerappa Moily, minister for corporate affairs said.
The new Companies Bill is expected to provide grea-ter shareholder democracy and stricter corporate governance norms.
“The final draft of the Companies Bill is ready. It has been circulated among various ministries for their comments. We expect the cabi-net to take it up for approval within next 20-25 days immediately after we receive their comments,” Moily told reporters here after opening the new zonal office of Corporation Bank.
The Companies Bill 2009, which will replace a half-a-century old Act, has been pending for passage for quite some time now.
Commenting on the new Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement Bill that was tabled in the Parliament two days ago, Moily said the respective state governments are entitled to have their own act. “It is not binding on the part of the state governments. What we are introducing is an overarching bill, which will give guidance. If two of the state assemblies make a resolution supporting the bill, it is enough to implement it and give it a national character and then other states will follow,” he said.
However, he said some of the clauses introduced in the bill like 80 per cent consent of the landowners to acquire land may undergo some change. “The existing act is 125 years old, which is outdated and colonial in nature. We want to make it very progressive. We will look into all the aspects. The new act will be passed after into account the interests of the farmers who will lose their land. Their livelihood concerns will be considered well before the new act is passed,” Moily added.
