Bill To Let Public Startups List Overseas Gets Lok Sabha Nod

The Lok Sabha, passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The bill allows public companies to list certain class of securities in foreign jurisdictions. The current legal framework doesn’t allow Indian companies to directly list abroad, before getting themselves listed in Indian stock exchanges.

Speaking about the bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government was focused on decriminalising certain offences in the companies law, to improve the Ease of Doing Business for small enterprises.

The number of penal provisions will be brought down from 134 to 124. However, there will be no change in the non-compoundable offences provisions which will remain at 35 as was the case in 2013, when the latest Companies Act was enacted, Sitharaman said.