Budget Reactions | Manmeet Singh, Senior Partner, Saraf And Partners Comments On IBC

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Budget 2024 in the Parliament today.

Manmeet Singh, Senior Partner, Saraf and Partners said, “Two of the most significant measures proposed by the Finance Minister for reforming the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) in her budget speech are setting up of additional benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), with some benches exclusively deciding matters under the Companies Act, 2013 (Companies Act) and introduction of an integrated technology platform for effective and efficient resolution under the IBC. At present, the NCLT benches are tasked with hearing cases under both under the Companies Act and the IBC and are also overburdened given the sheer volume of matters, which often results in large pendency of matters, having an adverse effect on timely resolution under the IBC as well as delaying corporate transactions such as mergers. While the details of the above reforms are awaited, augmenting the number of benches, with some benches exclusively hearing matters under the Companies Act, will not only help in declogging the NCLT benches. Similarly, the introduction of an integrated technology platform would result in better monitoring of processes enhancing transparency and efficiency."