Lok Sabha Passes Finance Bill Amid Din, without Debate
·
No Amendments
proposed on Customs or GST Side, Finance Bill Stays Intact
·
Rajya Sabha has
No Power to Amend Money Bill so Finance Bill is Deemed Passed by Parliament
·
Opposition upset over
quick passage, dub it as ‘blot on democracy’
Riding on the brute majority
that it enjoys in the lower house, the Modi-led government on Wednesday got the
Finance Bill 2018 passed by the Lok Sabha without any
discussion or separate voting on the demands for grants of any of the ministries.
Minutes after the House re-assembled
at noon, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan guillotined all the outstanding demands for grants in respect of the Union
Budget for 2018-19. In a span of a little over 30 minutes, the entire crucial second
and third leg of the budgetary process was completed by the lower house amidst din
and protests from the Opposition Members of Parliament.
Also passed amidst the din
was the fourth batch of supplementary demand for grants that authorised the Centre
to draw ₹60,500 crore for compensating the States for GST revenue
losses.
This is the first time during
the current NDA regime that the Lok Sabha had not discussed
and voted even a single Ministry’s demand for grants and the Finance Bill got passed
without an opportunity for opposition to raise issues on the amendments, say economy
watchers.
It may be recalled that the
second leg of the budget session, which started on Monday last, saw any meaningful
proceedings over the last seven working days, thanks to the Opposition protests
on Andhra Pradesh issues, PNB scam etc.
Opposition cry foul
Reacting to the developments
in the lower house, Congress Chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia said “Wednesday
was black day for the democracy of the country”.
“It is a blot on democracy.
The most important Finance Bill was allowed to get passed amid din. The Centre did
not allow any debate, any exchange of ideas and suggestions on the Bill. They throttled
the democracy in Parliament,” Scindia said.
BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab termed the passage
as “unfortunate”.
“This is most unfortunate incident
in the history of Parliament. All demands for grands were guillotined without any
discussion,” he said. CPI(M) MP Mohammed Salim said the
Centre did not want a discussion on the crucial issues faced by the country.
“This is a political crisis.
Such an arbitrary action hasn't happened in the history of Indian Parliament,” Salim
said.
Breaking the logjam
As soon as the lower house
assembled, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan, based on the request of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anant Kumar, announced that the guillotine on outstanding demands
for grants of 2018-19 will be taken up at just after noon instead of the earlier
set time of 5 pm on Wednesday.
In all Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley moved 21 amendments to the Finance Bill 2018.
Several amendments sought to clear the air on certain ambiguities and anomalies
that had crept in the Finance Bill on the new long term capital gains tax (LTCG)
regime.
Indexation benefit has now
been allowed to shares which were unlisted as on January 31, 2018, but are listed
on the date of transfer which happens to be on or after April 1, 2018. The government
also sought to tighten the loop further on foreign companies to tax their digital
presence in India. Start-ups had some relief with the amendment introduced to link
the turnover limit of ₹25 crore to the year of claim of 100 per
cent tax break.