Replying to a brief discussion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman justified the promulgation of the ordinance saying that the step was necessitated in view of COVID-19 pandemic situation. She said, there were apprehensions that the country’s economy was likely to be adversely affected.
The Finance Minister said, the government had settled thousands of disputed cases involving several lakh crores of rupees without any dissent. She said, the Insolvency Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Bill is helping to resolve the dispute much before it is entering the NCLT. This is due to the ecosystem created because of the IBC. The Minister said, the number of disposed cases even before admission in NCLT, as of 31st of July 2020 related to Section 7 is 2,789 company cases, whereas the amount is over Rs 1.96 lakh crore. She said, under Section 9, 11,581 cases have been disposed of whereas under Section 10- 140 cases disposed of amounting to Rs 1.53 lakh crore.
K. K. Ragesh of CPI-M alleged that the government was trying to protect corporate houses. He was supported by several opposition members. Vivek Tankha of Congress, Anuj Singh of BJP, Dinesh Trivedi of Trinamool Congress, A. Vijaya Kumar of AIADMK, Dr. Amar Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal, Ravi Prakash Verma of Samajwadi Party, P. Wilson of DMK, Rama Chandra Prasad Singh of Janata Dal-United, Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD, Anil Desai of Shiv Sena, K. Ravindra Kumar of Telugu Desam Party, Naraian Dass Gupta of Aam Aadmi Party, Veer Singh of Bahujan Samaj Party, Praful Patel of NCP and Binoy Viswam of CPI participated in the discussion on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Amendment Bill.
Earlier, the house took up discussion of the Epidemic Disease (Amendment) Bill 2020, moved by Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. Moving the bill, the Minister said, the country faced an extraordinary situation due to COVID-19 pandemic. He said doctors, paramedics, health workers and NGOs had faced attacks by the people. Keeping in view of the atrocities on the frontline warriors, the government has promulgated ordinance with several provisions including imprisonment and heavy fines on the people attacking the Covid workers. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, the government has received several complaints that some private hospitals have charged heavy amounts from the COVID patients. In reply to a question, he said, the Centre has also received several suggestions from State Governments in connection with the COVID pandemic.