Be in good company
Manish Kumar Singal

A company secretary’s job is multi-disciplinary, from guiding his directors about their duties and powers to giving advice on corporate law and fiscal matters.

HAVE you ever dreamt of being in a key position and taking all important decisions on behalf of your company? If yes, here is a career that will give you this position, making you one of the persons present to take decisions along with a firm’s Board of Directors. The job of a company secretary is one that ensures not only money but also a good position in a company along with good status.

Under government rules, it has become mandatory to hire a full time company secretary (CS) in every company having a turnover of more than Rs 2 crore. The data available indicates that there are about 10,000 companies that have an annual turnover more than Rs. 2 crore.

According to N.K.Jain, Secretary, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), "This is one of the most sought-after careers. There are companies that even hire more than one company secretary to handle their work."

The Company Secretary acts as a vital link between the company and its board of directors, shareholders and other stakeholders and regulatory authorities.

He plays a key role in ensuring that the board procedures are both followed and regularly reviewed. He is in fact a person who gets his salary from company but acts as a government representative to keep an eye whether the rules and laws are being followed properly by the company or not. He ensures that the company should take all its decisions as per the norms laid by the government.

A company secretary provides the board guidance about its duties, responsibilities and powers under various laws, rules and regulations.

He, in fact, acts as a compliance officer as well as an in-house legal counsel to advise the board and the various functional departments of the company on various corporate, business, economic and tax laws. He is an important member of the corporate management team and acts as a conscious-keeper of the company.

The company secretary handles almost every aspect of company affairs. His domain extends to corporate governance, legal and secretarial services to the company, advising it on good governance practices and compliance of corporate norms, as prescribed under the Companies Act. His services include corporate law and representation services, financial market services, taxation services, management services, human resource, information technology and much more. He also plays an important role in International Trade and WTO Services. He advises on matters related to IPRs under the TRIPs agreement of the WTO. He also advises on matters relating to anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing duties, International Commercial Arbitration, acts as a registered trade mark agent etc.

Jain says that this is a very prestigious profession and anyone who was planning to come into this profession must keep in his mind that there are no short-cuts to moving to higher positions. One has to do a lot of reading to be able to guide on every aspect of the corporate business.

Work prospects

A qualified company secretary can join a firm or practice independently. All companies with a share capital of Rs 2 crore or more are compulsorily required to appoint a full-time CS. Besides, all companies seeking a listing on the stock exchange are required to appoint a full-fledged CS. Membership of the institute is recognised for appointment to senior posts and services under the Central Government.

This is a highly paying profession. Jain informs that a company secretary can initially earn a minimum of Rs.10,000 per month and his emoluments may touch even Rs 60 lakh per annum in a big corporate or MNC.

The minimum qualification to join the CS course is plus two. A student can himself get enrolled for the foundation course. After qualifying this course, he can get enrolled in the intermediate course and then the final course.