India plans to amend corporate offences under companies law

The government Friday promulgated an ordinance to amend the companies law, a senior official said.

While details about the ordinance could not be immediately ascertained, it is believed that amendments mainly pertain to the restructuring of corporate offences under the Companies Act, 2013.

The proposal to issue an ordinance to amend the Act was cleared by the Cabinet Thursday.

The official said the ordinance had received assent from President Ram Nath Kovind and has been promulgated.

The Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is implementing the Act, has been looking at ways to promote ease of doing business as well as ensure better compliance levels.

In August, a government-appointed panel suggested various changes to the Act, including the restructuring of corporate offences under the companies law and an in-house adjudication mechanism to ensure that courts get more time to deal with serious violations.

Apart from the restructuring of corporate offences to relieve special courts from adjudicating routine offences, the panel has mooted "re-categorisation of 16 out of the 81 compoundable offences" under the Act.

The committee had also recommended disqualification of directors in case they have directorships beyond permissible limits and capping an independent director's remuneration.