Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Bankruptcy law


1)      Facts :

                                i.            as per the recent Doing Business, 2015 Report, India is ranked 134 on the ease of doing business and at 137 for resolving insolvencies.

                              ii.            The average time taken for insolvency proceedings in India is about 4.3 years, while it is only 1.7 years in high-income OECD countries.

                            iii.            The recovery rate (cents on the dollar) is 71.9 in high-income OECD countries as opposed to 25.7 in India.

2)      The budget has identified reform in bankruptcy laws as a key priority, envisaging legal clarity and speedy processes that will ultimately ease doing business in India.

3)      A new bankruptcy law coupled with practical changes, removing the judicial bottlenecks and delays, will be crucial to the reform process.

4)      The connection between better insolvency laws and economic growth is straightforward: stronger bankruptcy laws :-

                                 i.            protect the rights of borrowers and lenders

                               ii.            promote predictability and clarify the risks associated with lending

                             iii.            make the collection of debt through bankruptcy proceedings more attractive

5)      The above factors ultimately facilitate credit and thus a higher flow of capital in the economy.

6)      The  Bankruptcy Law Reform Committee set up by the Ministry of Finance in August 2014 will be crucial to the new legislation promised in the Budget. The Interim Report of the Committee was released in February 2015.

7)      The Committee sees the early recognition of financial distress and timely intervention as key features of efficient rescue regimes. An unviable company should be liquidated as soon as possible to minimise losses for stakeholders.

8)      They recommend that secured creditors be allowed to file an application for the rescue of a company at a sufficiently early stage, rather than wait for the company to have defaulted on 50 per cent of its outstanding debt, as currently provided for in the Companies Act, 2013.

9)      Unsecured creditors representing 25 per cent of the debt be allowed to initiate rescue proceedings against the debtor company.
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