Cos Bill Aims to Cut NCLT Load, Tighten CSR Compliance.

The government introduced the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in the LokSabha on Thursday, which seeks to tighten corporate social responsibility compliance and reduce the load of cases on the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Finance and corporate affairs minister NirmalaSitharaman said the bill seeks to replace the ordinance and that, along with certain other amendments, it is being brought in to “ensure more accountability and better enforcement to strengthen the corporate governance norms and compliance management in corporate sector”. Opposition parties, however, slammed the government saying it wanted to enact the law in haste. Sitharaman said the bill was a necessity since the government had promulgated an ordinance on the subject twice in the past. “A bill to replace the first ordinance was passed in LokSabha in January 2019 but could not get through in RajyaSabha. Hence the second ordinance was promulgated in February. This bill has been brought to replace the second ordinance. We are not bringing the bill in haste,” said Sitharaman.