Saturday, March 18 2006 11:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government will soon bring in a comprehensive new company legislation, replacing the 50-year-old archaic law to promote greater transparency and efficient governance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced here today(Mar 18,2006).

"Our Government is committed to formulating comprehensive new company law and work on the report of Irani Committee has been completed. We will be bringing a new bill to Parliament in the next few weeks," Singh said after launching the e-Governance project 'MCA 21' to free 7 lakh Indian companies from statutary paper-filing and end inspector-raj.

"The new company law will focus on promoting greater transparency and good governance in firms while at the same time giving them greater independence in operations," he said.

"Such a law will be comprehensive revision of the 50-year-old company law and bring us in alignment with current needs," Singh said.

"We will also expedite the adoption of accounting standards in alignment with the international accounting standards so that we have better disclosure norms on par with global best practices," he added.

The Prime Minister also asked the company affairs ministry to look into issues like limited liability partnerships, which 'are essential business structures in then emerging knowledge economy.'

"The Ministry also needs to get the competition commission fully functional because an active competiton body is an essential element in the architecture of modern market economy," he said.