'Indian Company Secretaries have a strategic role to play': Khosla

New Delhi, Nov 7 (UNI) Indian Company Secretaries have a strategic role to play in a world ruled by restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and takeovers, Corporate Affairs Joint Secretary Jitesh Khosla said here today.

Stating that the role of Company Secretaries was to guide management towards better corporate governance, Mr Khosla said in India there are 6,00,000 to 7,00,000 registered companies and another one million companies would be added by 2010.

Mr Khosla was speaking as chief guest at the special session on Companies Bill, 2008 and Limited Liability Partnership Bill, 2008 at Campal, Panaji in Goa, on the second day of the 36th National Convention of Company Secretaries.

On the Companies Bill, recently tabled in Parliament, he informed that the concept of civil liability had been introduced, insider trading cases dealt with strictly and the annual returns read with the balance sheet and profit and loss account to get the true picture of the company.

Out of 103 offences in the new Companies Bill, only three per cent were serious in nature and needed to be disposed of by courts, he said.

The Company Secretary was a key managerial personnel identified in the Bill as controls had been done away with, he said.

Referring to the Limited Liability Partnership Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha recently, he said the bill will act as a financing vehicle and will mitigate risks as compliance is minimal.

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