Parliament Panel Seeks Clarity On Pending Clauses In Securities Market Code Bill

New Delhi, Jul 20 (KNN) The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called the Economic Affairs Secretary to clarify pending provisions in the proposed Securities Market Code Bill, as it moves closer to finalising its draft report. Around 26 clauses remain unresolved and need to be incorporated before the report is submitted to Parliament.

Speaking to ANI after the committee meeting, Committee Chairman Bhartruhari Mahtab said the panel had invited the Economic Affairs Secretary to explain pending provisions of the proposed legislation.

"There were certain residual clauses which could not be approved the other day, the last meeting that we had, which covered around 26 clauses. That's why we had called the Economic Affairs Secretary and she came and explained to us all the residual issues that were pending. We had actually scheduled it today," Mahtab told ANI.

Draft Report Yet to Be Finalised

The committee discussed the draft report at Friday’s meeting but deferred its adoption pending the incorporation of the remaining clauses. 

"We discussed the draft agenda today, but we did not approve it because the issues of around 26 clauses which were left earlier, have to be incorporated in the draft. Those clauses will be added into our draft report and hopefully next week when we will be meeting on Tuesday we will be adopting that report," he noted.

The committee aims to submit its report during the first week of the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, he added. 

Extensive Stakeholder Input

"We had given around 1000 suggestions, out of which more than 85 have been accepted by the government," Mahtab said. "That's a very good number and out of 157 clauses of this bill, we had suggested around some thousand changes and 85 of them have been accepted."

He clarified that these suggestions were not limited to committee members but reflected feedback gathered through a wide range of stakeholder consultations.

"When I say 1,000 suggestions were given to them, it was not given by the committee itself. The number of stakeholders that we interacted with, they had given a number of suggestions....We interacted with RBI, with SEBI and with a number of chartered accountants and those who deal with Stock Exchanges; Even with investors and banks," Mahtab said.

Revisions Following Review

The chairman noted that the committee’s review process identified gaps in the initial draft of the bill, leading to significant revisions. He added that discussions within the panel helped highlight issues that had been overlooked earlier, resulting in improvements to the proposed legislation.

The final report, once adopted, will outline the committee’s recommendations for strengthening the Securities Market Code Bill before it is taken up in Parliament.

(KNN Bureau)