BJP to back Companies, PFRDA Bills

The government on Monday reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and secured its support for the Companies and the Pensions Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) Bills. The support will ensure both Bills are passed in this session of Parliament. The reworked Bills were introduced earlier in the session.

The BJP had its differences with the government on the Companies Bill, which it brought to the notice of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee when BJP leaders L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha met him this morning.

After the Companies Bill was cleared by the Standing Committee (in which the BJP is a member), some changes were brought in “on the basis of representations by industry”, a senior BJP functionary said. “We brought this to the notice of the finance minister, who said he would vet the Bill himself for inconsistencies.”

The party also agreed to support the PFRDA Bill on the condition that the 26 per cent cap in FDI is spelt out — the government will have to return to Parliament to change this, instead of doing it by stealth through an executive order, which is what the Opposition had alleged.