All about Companies Amendment Bill 2020

Prashant Panda , Last updated: 13 April 2020
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Brief bullet points on Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020, As introduced in Lok Sabha on 17th March 2020

This is 4th amendment after 2015,2017 & 2019.
66 sections has been proposed to be Amended.
Out of 66 amendments, 45 amendments are for Di-criminalization of penalty provisions as companies act is a civil law . Some penalty has been removed, Many places Imprisonment has been replaced with penalty, some areas the penalty /fine has been reduced.
A new section 129A has been inserted
Amendment made in section 62,135,149,197
Rest in most of the sections, the penalty provisions is amended .
Separate Chapter on 'Producer Company' is proposed to be introduced in the Act.
Setting up of Benches of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT),
Relaxing the provisions relating to charging of higher additional fees for default on 2 or more occasions in submitting, filing, registering or recording any document, fact or information as provided in section 403 of the Act;

Section	Old Provisions	New /Amended Provisions	Remarks
62	Minimum time period of 15 days for subscribe to Right issue (Issue open time )	Now this 15 days will be reduced . The word “or such lesser number of days as may be prescribed" shall be inserted .	This will help the company close the period at the early once all the shares are subscribed and speed up the process.
129A	New Section	Unlisted “ companies “to prepare periodic financial results . To take Board approval and prepare & complete Audit or Limited Review A copy shall be filed with ROC with fees	This is like and at par with Listed companies as per LODR. MCA will bring some private companies as well based on TO/Paid up share capital within this new provisions to track & monitor them.
135	New set off provisions and no requirement to constitute CSR committee	A company to whom CSR provisions applies , spends in “ excess” of requirements u/s 135, the excess amount can be adjusted in next Financial years . If the amount to be spent does not exceed Rs 50 Lakh in a year then the constitution of CSR committee is not required and Board can discharge the same .	This is a new provisions to give a relief to a company who spends more amount voluntarily . The provision of transfer of unspent amount is yet to be effective .(section 135-6)
149	Independent Director gets sitting Fees and profit related commission .	Now Independent Director will gets remuneration evenif there is no profit /inadequate profit as per Sch V apart from sitting fees .	This is a good move since there is stringent compliance for Independent Director , they should be treated at par with other Managerial Persons
197	Payment of Remuneration only to MD, WTD or MGR in case there is no profit or inadequate profit as per SCH-V	Now this privilege of payment of remuneration during the No profit /inadequate profit also to cover “ Non –Executive Directors & Independent Directors as well.	This is a good move by MCA since Other directors are also part of the management team . This will enhance the productivity of such non-executive directors because of their increased remuneration .