New Delhi, Mar 17 () A bill to amend the Companies Act2013 and decriminalise various offences under it wasintroduced in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, amid opposition by membersof various parties.
Introducing the bill, Minister of State for Finance andCorporate Affairs Anurag Thakur made it clear that thegovernment was not looking to decriminalise non-compoundableoffences.
Members from various parties vehemently opposed theintroduction of the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Raising concerns about the Yes Bank crisis, someOpposition leaders alleged that the bill was aimed to appeasecorporates and demanded that it should be referred to theParliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab said that through this billgovernment was seeking to decriminalise certain offences andreducing penalty for others.
Questioning the timing of introduction of the bill, heasked, "Is this an opportune time to introduce the bill when alarge private bank has collapsed?".
On March 5, the Reserve Bank superseded the board of YesBank in the wake of deepening crisis, mainly due to huge badloans and a moratorium has been imposed. Under a revival plan, SBI and some private banks have madeinvestments in Yes Bank.
Number of companies are folding up because of theactivities of promoters, Mahtab said. Echoing similar sentiments, TMC MP Saugata Roy said itappears that the government is heavily influenced byrepresentatives of industry chambers.
"Today (former) CEO of Yes Bank is in EnforcementDirectorate custody...the government is seeking todecriminalise certain regulations in the name of ease of doingbusiness," Roy said.
Yes Bank co-founder and former CEO Rana Kapoor is in EDcustody.
Seconding the arguments against the bill made by TMC andBJD members, Congress leader of the House Adhir RanjanChowdhury said the government can be "identified as by thecorpoates... for the corporates".
He further claimed that the government is dilutingCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) norms to help thecorporate sector.
"This government is appeasing corporates... it isappeasement of corporates," Chowdhury said.
Responding to the criticism, Thakur said the governmentwas not decriminalising non-compoundable offences, whichincludes frauds and injury to the public.
He also said that CSR regulations are not being eased butonly procedural requirements.
The amendments in the law would also help reduce theburden on the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), he said. JTR RAMDV DV