A Bill to restrict voting rights of brokers as shareholders and their participation on governing boards of stock exchanges was on Monday passed in Lok Sabha without discussion and by a voice vote.
Incorporating the recommendations of JPC report on the stock market scam, the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2003, introduced by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, seeks to expedite corporatisation and demutualisation of exchanges.
Since the demutualisation separates ownership, voting rights and management from the right of access to trading, it requires that the representation of brokers in board of directors of stock exchanges is either not permitted at all or kept to a minimum, says the 'statement of objects and reasons' of the Bill.
The Bill also proposes to amend the Depositories Act, 1996, to provide for appeals from the orders of the Securities Appellate Tribunal under that Act, to the Supreme Court on the lines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.
The Bill, besides defining the corporatisation and demutualisaton, also seeks to limit the organisational form of a stock exchange to a corporate entity.
It also proposes specifying the time limit within which the shares shall be disinvested by stock brokers under the scheme of corporatisation and demutualisation.
Nabard amendment Bill passed
A bill to enable the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development reduce transaction costs to the benefit of farmers through direct refinance of central cooperative banks was passed by a voice vote on Monday in the Lok Sabha.
While the Business Advisory Committee of Lok Sabha had decided to adopt it without debate, RJD's Raghuvansh Prasad Singh insisted on speaking and suggested that regional offices of Nabard should be authorised to clear projects worth Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) instead of awaiting clearance from the headquarters which delayed the implementation of projects.
After Finance Minister Jaswant Singh suggested passage of the Bill, it was adopted by a voice vote.
The Nabard (Amendment) Bill, 2003, introduced by the finance minister on August 7, seeks to obviate the need for extending refinance by Nabard through several tiers of the cooperative system.
As Nabard refinancing to district central co-operative banks directly does not exist at present, the Bill proposed to amend the Nabard Act, 1981 to introduce this refinancing of DCCBs directly, on a voluntary basis, according to statement of objects and reasons of the Bill.
The states which volunteer to implement the crop loan scheme would have the benefit of this direct refinancing, which would reduce transmission costs, directly benefiting the farmers having accounts in co-operatives for their agriculture credit and reduce cost of credit, it says.
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