Rajya Sabha on Tuesday cleared the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 after it received Lok Sabha’s nod on Saturday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the Upper House today that the amendments are divided in two compartments and focus on decriminalisation and enhance ease of living. “The Companies Act was passed in 2013, and since then it has undergone so many amendments because the stakeholders kept giving inputs on its various aspects… It essentially consists of two different compartments, the first one consists of 48 amendments all of which aim at decriminalisation and related matters,” Sitharaman said. The minister said that compliance-related issues have been made simpler. In the second compartment, 13 amendments have been made including the addition of a chapter and insertion of three new sections. The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 removes penalty, imprisonment for nine offences that pertain to orders of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). It also reduces the amount of fine payable in certain cases.

(Business Today)