Icsi Chief Meets Fm To Protest Against Cos Bill

Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) president Prahalad Rao met finance minister P Chidambaram yesterday to protest against the provision of the draft companies bill, 1997, which makes its optional for companies to appoint full-time company secretaries.

At present, all companies with a paid-up equity of Rs 50 lakh are required to hire full-time company secretaries.

The draft bill requires only companies with a paid-up equity of more than Rs 2 crore to appoint full-time company secretaries.

In case of unlisted public companies and listed companies with a paid-up equity of less than Rs 2 crore, the draft bill has provided that secretarial compliance (a certificate from a company secretary, saying that all the provisions of the Companies Act have been followed, attached to the annual report) is sufficient.

 

According to an ICSI calculation, over 7,000 company secretaries (as against its registered strength of about 10,000 practitioners) will be displaced.

An ICSI release said the finance minister had reassured the delegation that the government would consider the views of the institute. ICSI has argued that the acceptance of the provision would have a negative impact on professionalisation of corporate management.and good corporate governance which is the need of the hour.