Cos Bill To Be Tabled Tomorrow
The Companies Amendment Bill, 2000 will finally be taken up by Parliament for discussion tomorrow. Though only one hour has been granted for discussion, the department of company affairs is hopeful that it will be passed by both the houses of Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session. The current session is to get over on Friday. The department's confidence stems from the fact that the standing committee on home affairs, that had made recommendations on the basis of which the draft Bill has been prepared, was headed by Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee. But the Bill did not figure on the agenda for Parliament's business for this week drawn by the Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee. Parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan did not mention the Bill last Friday, when he announced the list of government business in the Lok Sabha. Though the Bill was accorded the highest priority level 'A', other high priority Bills such as the supplementary budget demands (general and railways) were also to be taken up by the Lok Sabha. So there was a possibility of deferring the Companies Amendment Bill to the next session. DCA officials then approached the secretary general of the Lok Sabha and met with the speaker G M C Balayogi. The reason for DCA's keenness to get the Bill cleared by Parliament this session itself, is due to the fact that there are many amendments for instance those regarding corporate governance which require to be effected as soon as possible. It was important that the Bill be taken up since present session of Parliament ends on August 25. Following this the Bill can only be taken up in the Winter session. The department also lost some time when Arun Jaitley took over as the minister for law, justice and company affairs, following Ram Jethmalani's resignation according to sources in the ministry. The cabinet has already given its assent to the draft Bill, keeping a clause pertaining to representation of small investors on company boards, in abeyance. Now the Bill only remains to be ratified by Parliament.