Salman Khurshid took charge of the corporate affairs ministry when the global economic crisis was escalating and investor confidence was consequently at its lowest ebb. However, in less than a year, apart from taking the Satyam episode to its logical conclusion, Khurshid is all set to table the Companies Bill, as vetted by the standing committee of Parliament in the Winter Session. In a freewheeling interview with FE?s Subhomoy Bhattacharjee and Ronojoy Banerjee, a relaxed minister looks back at his tenure and identifies the challenges ahead. Excerpts:
Since you took charge as a minister, the Satyam saga has had a happy ending and even Maytas episode was shown the right direction. What are the challenges ahead ?
While we can take credit for Satyam, I think to assume we have found the definitive model of intervention is not right. Before we can say that all is well, we have a lot of work to do. The Early Warning System has to be fine-tuned. The MCA filing has to be more interactive and analytical. We need to do much more on investor education and protection, and are going to do a lot on this front this year. We have to ensure that the Companies Bill gets through as soon as possible in the shape and manner in which it will be useful for a long time and no amendments are required. There is still a lot of work left.
By when do you see the Companies Bill getting finally passed?
I won?t hazard a guess but I would be happy if the Bill can be tabled in the Winter Session. There are some minor changes that we need to do before the Bill gets passed like what is needed for convergence with the International Financial Reporting Standards. We may have to make some amendments to the Bill.
Last December you had released your guidelines on corporate governance. What is the update on that?
As we move forward on the voluntary guidelines we get to the end of the year, and that is the time when we need to see how much of this can be brought into rules and regulations. The peer pressure would help people to move towards this.
Industry is very wary of these guidelines. They say that the guidelines are only ?voluntary? in their appearance but no company really has a choice because at the end of the day they are still answerable to their shareholders. Hence it automatically becomes mandatory in nature.
This is the whole idea of the guidelines. If this is the concern then it is an illegitimate one. Public pressure of approval and disapproval is the ultimate test in a democracy. We have said that we want to move towards shareholder democracy. Now you can?t say that modify shareholder democracy. You need to persuade your shareholders!
Any move on the part of your ministry to create more regulations for auditors against the backdrop of Satyam scandal as many had expected?
There is regulation but that?s of a kind that we don?t get involved in. They have to get more answerable to their own professional bodies. The bodies also need to provide them with the right kind of format for interaction and interface.