Satyam Scam: Probe will be expedited: Minister for Corporate

Stating that the Companies Bill would be re introduced , Minister for Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid today said the new legislation was quite adequate to take care that episodes like Satyam did not happen.

"It would be my first priority to reintroduce the Bill in Parliament," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told UNI.

The Bill, which had been brought in the Lok Sabha in October, was to replace the 1956 Companies Act. However, it lapsed when the 14th Lok Sabha was dissolved.

The Bill was introduced by Mr Khurshid’s predecessor Mr Prem Chadra Gupta.

The Minister said the Bill, which would be recast, would have provisions that prevented what happened in the case of Satyam.

"But still I would say that Satyam’s was both a failure and success story. How Satyam failed, how the company was brought back shows the basic robust resilience of the system," he said.

As, the Minister said, reports came in that Satyam, which had come been taken over by Tech Mahindra after its to 7000 Crore swindle, had posted a profit of Rs 181 crore in the third quarter ending December.

He said the Companies BIll, 2008 had already anticipated some of the issues that had been highlighted by the Satyam scam. However, the new bill will have some new provisions in view of the Satyam fraud.

For example, the Bill would seek to bring in the Act full clarity in entitlements and greater transparency in the working of the companies and it also seeks to make firms and their promoters more accountable.

Replying to a question he said he would try to see that the probe into the Satyam scam progressed fast.

The Companies Bill is likely to be introduced in the coming budget session in July.

The Bill seeks to effect far-reaching changes in the laws governing the corporate sector. There has been a growing feeling that the existing Companies Act had become ineffective to exercise adequate regulation in the changed corporate environment of the country.

The proposed law has been in making for the last five years, at least since 2004, when the ministry of corporate affairs started the process of a comprehensive revamp of the Companies Act, 1956.

The new Bill that had lapsed sought to protect the interest of shareholder by seeking to ensure that their right over dividend or security lying unclaimed for more than seven years was not taken away.

The Bill to be reintroduced has attempted to further strengthen these provisions.