On 30 April the Government ruled out imposition of
wealth tax on agriculture land as the Lok Sabha completed the budgetary exercise in an unusual way
with Finance Bill and Demands for Grants for various ministries being passed
without debate after Opposition walkout.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram also exempted
Railways from payment of service tax for period between July,
1, 2012 (rpt 2012) to October 1, 2012 to avoid burden
on the state-owned carrier.
Making a brief statement while moving the Finance
Bill for voting, he introduced an amendment on the issue of wealth tax in view
of misapprehensions as to whether it will apply to agriculture land.
"There was apprehension that wealth tax was
being imposed on agricultural land. Let me make it absolutely clear that the
policy of the UPA government is not to impose wealth tax on agriculture
land," he said.
The apprehensions arose on account of judgements
following Punjab and Haryana High Court rulings, Chidambaram said, adding he
had worked hard yesterday (29 April) to prepare the amendment and obtain
the approval of the President and "the matter should come to an end."
The passage of the General and Railway budgets was
rushed through as the guillotine had to applied to
meet the constitutional requirements.
BJP staged walk out over the coal issue, while
Left, BJD and AIADMK left the House to protest against passage of important
bills without discussion. DMK too walked out demanding removal of the JPC chief
P C Chacko.
After the walkout, Speaker Meira
Kumar said the passage of crucial bills without debate was being done in a
"very difficult condition" and it was "immensely painful"
for her.