File pic Photo: 123RF / Andrey Popov
Officials will not say if a court ruling in Europe has implications for a push to let the public know more about who owns companies.
The government has promised law changes and a compulsory register to make it easier to tell who ultimately controls a company.
Part of the reason is to combat corruption and money laundering by decreasing commercial secrecy.
Discussion documents go back to 2018.
The government said last year the ease with which companies could be set up here was good, but "also opens the door for criminals to take advantage".
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment had hoped to get a draft bill out late last year, but said it had missed that date.
It now aimed to release that in the middle of the year, it said.
The European Union Court of Justice ruled late last year that it was "serious interference" with fundamental privacy rights to let the public access such registers.
It was a blow for transparency advocates who have welcomed the spread of registers in Europe.
"MBIE and the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs are aware of the decision" in Europe, acting manager of corporate governance and intellectual property policy Gillian Sharp said.
"The UK continues to make its register of 'persons with significant control' available to the general public," she said.
Here, any register would only have limited personal information on it, and if a business owner could show they had a safety or welfare worry, they could ask the registrar to suppress the information, the ministry said.
