It comes 57 years after the previous one, has spent 4 years in drafting, four years in Parliament and contains 470 sections, with over 370 yet-to-be-notified rules. One-man companies, small companies, dormant companies, RoFR validity, new private placement rules, new subsidiary threshold, only two layers of investment subsidiaries, restrictions of inter-corporate loans and investments, mergers of Indian companies with foreign companies, no treasury stock, further safeguards in related party transactions, a definition for fraud, new rules for winding up, national company law tribunals – no doubt this law brings many important changes and we will discuss them in detail once the rules are out.
But today I’m going to focus on the big bang changes brought in by India’s new Company Law! Here are the big 6!
Independent Directors Defined!
Independent directors have been recognised by company law for the very first time. Their identities have been defined, remuneration restricted, liabilities limited, separate meetings provided for and duties detailed in a 4 page code of conduct- that, ladies and gentlemen is called an entry with a bang!
Rotation of Independent Directors & Auditors
And yes, independent directors have to be rotated as is also applicable to audit firms. India is probably the first country in the world to mandate rotation of independent directors. But the list of countries requiring audit firm rotation extends to 30 including Italy, Brazil, China, Turkey and Netherlands. Rotation then is the new governance Brahmastra!
National Financial Reporting Authority
But that’s not the only change facing chartered accountants and auditors. The bigger one is the creation of a national financial reporting authority that will take over from NACAS the job of standard setting and will also enforce compliance with accounting and auditing standards as well as professional conduct standards thereby