Mumbai, Oct. 25: Industry wants an end to government restrictions on mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) today urged the government to scrap the provisions on merger control in the companies act as they were unnecessary and sent negative signals to investors.

With M&A deals expected to double this year to $100 billion, Ficci feels excessive regulations will only spoil their momentum. Besides, removing the curbs will help industry face the challenges of globalisation.

Ficci president Habil Khorakiwala said too many regulations were hurting growth prospects. “We have a maze of around 3,000 central statutes, of which about 450 deal directly or indirectly with economic and commercial decision-making.”

Citing the example of regulations on the composition of directors, Khorakiwala said the matter should be left to the board.

“Neither company law nor Sebi regulations should prescribe the number of promoter directors or independent directors,” he said.

Khorakiwala also sees no logic or justification for imposing restrictions on inter-corporate loans and investments as “it unnecessarily hampers the growth of the corporate sector”.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) should be made a quasi-judicial body having both judicial and administrative powers as is the case in other countries, he added.

“It is, however, imperative that CCI remains an autonomous body with accountability towards its stakeholders,” Khorakiwala said.

Ficci said there should be separate provisions for small and medium enterprises in the new companies act. It said compliance costs should be minimum for such entities.