Parliament’s monsoon session is likely to begin on July 17 and take up key economic bills on the proposed National Financial Information Registry (NFIR), data protection, and insolvency, among others, according to official sources.
The Session will likely have 20 sittings and conclude on August 11, the sources said.
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Given the frosty relations between the ruling Bharatiya Janata party and opposition parties, the session could be stormy. The Budget session of Parliament, which concluded on April 6, could approve just one Bill other than the Budget related ones amid the ruckus by both the ruling alliance and the opposition parties in both Houses.
The NFIR Bill, prepared by the Reserve Bank of India, aims to create one registry to provide a 360-degree information system which will be readily available to lending institutions to ensure that it quickens the process of credit and brings down the cost of credit. Borrowers’ consent will be a must for NFIR to share the data at its disposal with the lenders. The lenders will be owners of the registry.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 aims for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes.
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The government released the revised draft of the new data protection Bill in November last year, after withdrawing the draft in August. The revamped version details the rights and duties of the citizen for personal data protection and the provisions to use collected data lawfully by the data fiduciary i.e. a company dealing with the individual data. For data breaches, the quantum of maximum penalty is now proposed at Rs 500 crore, compared to the older version of the bill which proposed to levy penalties of 2-4% of the total worldwide turnover of the firms concerned.
The government will also introduce a Bill to undertake a host of amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The Corporate Affairs Ministry has proposed the changes to expedite the resolution process and prevent erosion of stressed asset value, as recovery for creditors has taken a knock in recent years.
The Bill will aim to extend the so-called pre-packaged insolvency scheme — currently meant to resolve stress in only micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — to a certain category of larger firms as well, and simplify the extant framework that has failed to gather traction so far.
The MCA has also suggested a special insolvency regime for real estate under which the resolution process would be restricted to only those projects where the default has occurred, and won’t extend to the entire company or other solvent projects. It could also propose the adoption of a system of single transferable vote for creditors to decide on resolution bids for bankrupt companies, in a move aimed at maximising the chances of the plans getting approved.
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Among others, the government could take up the Electricity (Amendment) Bill which aims to mandate Discoms to provide non-discriminatory open access to its network to all other Discoms operating in the same area, on payment of certain charges. The Bill adds that upon the grant of multiple licenses for the same area, the state government will set up a Cross-subsidy Balancing Fund, which will be used to finance deficits in cross-subsidy for other discoms in the same area or any other area.
Key Bills
National Financial Information Registry: To create one registry to provide a 360-degree information system on borrowers to quicken the process of credit and cut cost of credit.
Digital Personal Data Protection Bill: Processing of digital personal data in a way that recognises both the right of individuals and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes.
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment): To extend the pre-packaged insolvency scheme to a certain larger firms, and expedite resolution process
