COLUMNS | CORPORATE LAWS | FEATURED | HEADLINES | TOP STORIES Critical Analysis of the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 March 18, 2020 11:57 am| By : Gaurav N. Pingle Amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 (‘the Act’) seems to be a routine activity of the Government. The Act was amended by the Companies Amendment Act, 2015, 2017, 2019 and now, in 2020 (as proposed). Every time, the object of the amendment is different – from the ease of doing business to ease of living for corporates.

With the Government’s objective of facilitating greater ease of living to law-abiding corporates, it had constituted Company Law Committee (‘Committee’) on September 18, 2019. The overall objective of the Government and the Committee was to decriminalize some more provisions of the Act based on their gravity and to take other necessary measures to provide further ease of living for corporates in the country. The Committee submitted its report in November 2019.

Based on the recommendations of the Committee and an internal review by the Government, the Companies Amendment Bill, 2020 proposed amendment to various provisions of the Act, which includes: (i) Decriminalisation of minor procedural or technical lapses under the provisions of the said Act, into civil wrong, (ii) Considering the overall pendency of the courts, a principle-based approach was adopted to further remove criminality in case of defaults. In addition, the Government also proposes to provide greater ease of living to corporates through certain other amendments to the Act.

Following are the key highlights of the Companies Amendment Bill, 2020:

1.  In consultation with SEBI, the Central Government would be empowered to exclude a certain class of companies from the definition of ‘listed company’ mainly for a listing of debt securities i.e. generally when the shares of a company are not listed but debentures of such company are listed on the recognized stock exchange,

Separate Chapter on ‘Producer Company’ is proposed to be introduced in the Act,

Read more at: https://www.taxscan.in/critical-analysis-companies-amendment-act-2020/52839/