Main features and relaxations of Companies (Amendment) Bill are as under:

1.      No minimum capital requirement of Rs.1 lakh (in case of private company) or Rs. 5 lakh (in case of public company)

2.      Approval of shareholders under Section 188 (related party transactions) can be ordinary

3.      Transaction between holding and wholly owned subsidiaries whose accounts are consolidated and laid before general meeting are exempt from shareholders’ approval requirement is exempt from requirement of obtaining shareholders’ approval

4.      No requirement of common seal. If the company does not have common seal, authority in favour of any person by two directors or one director and company secretary, if any, will bind the Company

5.      If deposit is accepted in violation of deposit rules or the company fails to repay deposit or interest thereon the company shall, in addition to the payment of the amount of deposit or part thereof and the interest due, be punishable with fine which shall not be less than one crore rupees but which may extend to ten crore rupees; and every officer of the company who is in default shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to seven years or with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five lakh rupees but which may extend to two crore rupees, or with both. If it is proved that the officer of the company who is in default, has contravened such provisions knowingly or wilfully with the intention to deceive the company or its shareholders or depositors or creditors or tax authorities, he shall be liable for action under section 447.

6.      Exemption for loan given to wholly owned subsidiary and security or guarantee provide on behalf of subsidiary is given 185 itself (earlier exemption was through rules, subordinated regulations)

7.      Board resolutions under Section 179 which are filed with RoC, will not be public document

8.      Previous losses and depreciation will need to be set off out of current year profit before declaring dividend

9.      If dividend is claimed and paid, shares in respect thereof should not be transferred to IEPF

10.  Fraud exceeding certain percentage need to be reported to Central Government. Other fraud of lesser amount need to be reported to audit committee/ board and details of frauds which are reported to audit committee/ board also need to be disclosed in directors report

11.  Audit Committee can give omnibus approval (this will be on the lines of listing agreement; but threshold and other conditions will be prescribed by Rules). Companies Biill (www.casansaar.com)