New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Wednesday gave its seal of approval for a bill seeking to remove “oppressive provisions” in the Companies law and to align it with international practices.Piloting the bill, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the “oppressive provisions” have been removed from the Com-panies Act 2013 as it was felt “no body will come here to set up business if such an environment persists.”
The Companies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2014, was passed by voice vote but not before opposition Congress created uproar as it wanted the legislation to be referred to the Standing Committee which was not accepted by the Chair.Mr Jaitley, while winding up the debate said, the amendments will do away with draconian POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act)-type provisions which had made it impossible for an accused for violating provisions of Companies Act to get bail.
“We are easing the environment for doing business,” he said while justifying the amendments to the Companies Act.The 14 amendments to the Companies Act incl-ude severe punishment for those raising illegal deposits from the public, a move that comes in the backdrop of Saradha sc-am in which those running chit funds duped lakhs of small investors.
This would be among the first major initiatives by the government to make changes in the country’s regulatory framework to improve its global ranking for ease of doing business, where India has been ranked very low at 142nd position in the latest World Bank report.
