A bill seeking to remove "oppressive provisions" in Companies Act and to align it with international practices was approved by Lok Sabha with the government saying it will improve ease of doing business and attract investments.
Piloting the bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the "oppressive provisions" have been removed from the Companies 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.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the government in "its hurry", was doing away with the traditional practice of referring important bills to Standing Committee. 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. Observing that some of the provisions in Companies Act have made doing business in India extremely difficult, the Minister said, the amendments sought to remove them as they crept in because of oversight.
"There were some (provisions) which was oversight and there were some which were left out and there were some which came in as part of this thinking that we must make doing business extremely difficult," Jaitley said.
The 14 amendments to the Companies Act include severe punishment for those raising illegal deposits from the public, a move that comes in the backdrop of Saradha scam in which those running chit funds duped lakhs of small investors.
