Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das today expressed hope that the Bankruptcy and Insolvency law would become operational by the end of this year, leading to further ease of doing business.
"We have a definite roadmap to implement the Bankruptcy law. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is working on it. The law ministry, the legislative department are also working on finalising the regulation. We expect therefore the entire bankruptcy and insolvency law will become operational by end of December," he said at an Assocham event here.
The government has already set up Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) and floated draft norms to take views of the stakeholders.
Earlier this month, draft regulations related to liquidation of insolvent corporate persons, insolvency resolution process for corporate persons and application to judicial authority.
The ministry had issued draft regulations pertaining to registration of insolvency professionals, agencies and model bye-laws. A working group of experts, set up by the ministry, has prepared these regulations.
Views of stakeholders have been sought till October 31 on these draft norms.
Notified by the government in May, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code seeks to consolidate and amend laws relating to reorganisation as well as insolvency resolution of corporate persons, partnership firms and individuals in a time-bound manner.
Meanwhile, IBBI, chaired by M S Sahoo, held its first meeting last Friday and it was addressed by Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The board will have 10 members. Apart from the chairman, currently there are four government-nominated members and the rest are expected to be appointed in coming months.
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Highlighting how a clear roadmap has been drawn up, Das said the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has already published certain draft regulations and have invited comments, other regulations and rules are under preparation and they will be put in the public domain for public consultation.
"Now it is the responsibility of both government and industry bodies and every category of professionals to develop information utilities, to develop insolvency professionals and take the implementation of this law forward and see that it is fully implemented and the economy and country is able to get its full benefits," he said.
Das also said that Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law creates massive opportunities for new service sector professionals who can manage information utilities and it also opens up lot of opportunities for a new category of professionals, mainly the resolution professionals who have to play a very important role.
"I think the most critical thing for success of Bankruptcy code will be our ability to create good quality insolvency professionals. This opens up opportunities for professionals from the field of banking, legal professionals, chartered accountants, other finance professionals, people who have experience in management of companies," he said.
