Government to table Corporate Laws Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha today

Aimed to boost the ease of doing business. The reforms will decriminalise minor offences, shift select criminal provisions to civil penalties, and reduce compliance burdens for small firms, startups, and farmer-led producer companies.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Aimed to boost the ease of doing business. The reforms will decriminalise minor offences, shift select criminal provisions to civil penalties, and reduce compliance burdens for small firms, startups, and farmer-led producer companies.

According to the Lok Sabha's Monday agenda, the Finance Minister will introduce the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to amend the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008, and the Companies Act, 2013.

The Companies Act governs firm incorporation, governance, disclosures, and dissolution, while the more flexible LLP Act offers limited liability to partners, sources aware of the development said on condition of anonymity. The Cabinet approved the bill on March 10.

Both laws have seen prior amendments, and these updates aim to further ease doing business while introducing "ease of living" for corporates by decriminalising additional provisions, as per the Hindustan Times.

The Companies Act has been revised four times since 2015 to streamline compliance, while the LLP Act was last amended in 2021 with similar goals.

The amendments stem from recommendations by the government-constituted Company Law Committee (CLC), to enhance ease of doing business for entities.

The CLC's latest report was submitted on March 21, 2022. Formed in September 2019 with 11 members, the panel included former Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan, Kotak Mahindra Bank MD Uday Kotak, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Executive Chairman Shardul S. Shroff, CA G. Ramaswamy, and Xpro India Chairman Sidharth Birla.

For the Companies Act, 2013, CLC recommendations include:

• Enabling certain companies to communicate with members solely via electronic form.
• Easing capital-raising for distressed firms.
• Permitting affidavits with self-certification.
• Allowing general meetings in virtual, physical, or hybrid modes.
• Strengthening the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA).
• Banning the conversion of cooperative societies into companies.

Under the LLP Act, it proposed simplifying incorporation and compliance for producer organisations of farmers, fishermen, or artisans.