BUDGET SESSION PART 2 - SEQUEL COULD HAVE HAPPY ENDING ON GST
By Ruma Dubey
Budget Session Part 2. It once again holds the promise of being stormy. Now that’s one promise which our leaders keep, one session after the other.
Part 1 of the Budget session began on 23rd Feb and it had the all-important Railway as well as Union Budget. It also saw the Aadhar Bill becoming a reality on 16th March and a day before that, on 15th March, Parliament passed the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016.
The budget session of Parliament began on February 23, 2016 and had 16 sittings until March 16, 2016. Lok Sabha was prorogued on March 29 and Rajya Sabha on March 30. During this session, a total of 7 Bills were passed of which 2 were introduced during the session. The Bills which were passed, excluding the previously mentioned two, included the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the National Waterways Bill, 2015 and the Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015. Some Bills have been passed by one House and are pending in the other House. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which replaced an Ordinance promulgated in January 2016, was introduced and passed by Lok Sabha in this session. It was referred to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha. Other Bills passed by Lok Sabha include the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016, and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2016. In addition, the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced and passed by Rajya Sabha.
Today, the Part 2 Budget session begins and will end on 13th May and it will have a total of 15 sittings. As usual, the Opposition is sharpening its knives and this time too, it has many issues on the basis of which the proceedings can be disrupted. There is the Uttarakhand imbroglio, Ishrat Jahan, drought and water scarcity, Panama Papers. Kejriwal is going to rake up a new storm – his party is going to demand statehood for Vidarbha.
Notwithstanding all this, the Government hopes to get business done and it has ensured it will remain a packed session – it has 13 bill in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha which need legislature. For the market, all that matters is the GST Bill. If that one Bill gets passed, the market will not look back – drought, Panama, Uttarakhand, nothing will matter.
This time around, the hope is that the Bill WILL get passed as the Congress, last week, approved the draft law. Out of its three demands, two are expected to be met except the 18% cap – Congress is demanding that the states/Center or the GST Council can have the freedom to raise tax but the upper limit should be capped at 18%. This is not agreeable to the BJP. The other two conditions which will get through – do away with the 1% state specific tax and let there be a neutral, third party to judge a dispute and not give that power to the GST Council.
Last time around the BJP and Congress put their political fighting aside and passed the Real Estate Bill. The same middle path of compromise from both sides is required this time too. And it does look like, the GST might see the light of the day.
Important Bills to be taken up in this session:
- Presidential Proclamation under Article 356 of the Constitution and the Uttarakhand Appropriation (Vote-on-Account) Ordinance, 2016
- Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Second Ordinance, 2016
- Goods and Service Tax Bill, 2016
- Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2016
- Regional Centre for Bio-technology Bill,2016
- Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2014 (Standing Committee submitted its Report);
- Electricity Amendment Bill, 2014 (Standing Committee submitted its Report);
- Lok Pal and Lokayuktas and other related laws (Amendment) Bill,2014 (Standing Committee submitted its report)
- Merchant Shipping Bill, 2015
- Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Second Bill, 2015.
- Discussion on demands for grants of various ministries in Lok Sabha and working of some ministries in Rajya Sabha
- Consideration and passing of the Finance Bill, 2016