Committee suggests sweeping changes to Companies Act, 2013 – open for public comments

This alert summarizes the key recommendations of the Companies Law Committee (“Committee”) on the Companies Act, 2013 (“Act”) and the rules therein.

The Committee studied recommendations and suggestions received from various stakeholders as well as international best practices. Broadly, the committee’s recommendation seeks to tackle three types of issues:
► Addressing the transitional-cum implementation problems;
► Removal of inconsistencies between the Act, SEBI framework and the accounting standards; and
► Difficulties faced by corporates in doing business
Key recommendations include incentives to start-ups, clarity on dividend repatriation, relaxation for inter-corporate funding and private placement norms, disclosures relating to ultimate beneficial ownership and doing away with certain approval requirements.

The report of the Committee is open for public comments till 15 February 2016.