INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 2007
The Month that was ...

SIX IMPORTANT BILLS PASSED WITHOUT DEBATE IN HOUSE

THE stand-off between the UPA-Left combine and the NDA over the Nandigram killings had its fallout on legislative business in the two houses of parliament, with as many as six crucial bills being passed in the melee, without any discussion.

While the pandemonium in the Lok Sabha ensured that the National Rural Employment Guarantee (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill and the National Tax Tribunal (Amendment) Bill were passed without a word being uttered for or against them, a similar fate befell as many pieces of legislation in the Rajya Sabha.

While the National Tax Tribunal (Amendment) Bill provides that no member of the NTT shall be transferred by the Centre without the chairman's concurrence, the passage of the Taxation Law (Amendment) Bill will ensure the phasing out of the central sales tax (CST) in four stages and its eventual abolition in three years.

The most important among them, of course, was the Appropriation (Voteon-Account) Bill, 2007, which allows the centre to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to enable it to meet its expenses till the time the general budget receives a parliamentary nod during the post-recess period.

The bill, and the finance minister's reply to the debate on the budget, in that respect, followed the same route as they had done in the Lok Sabha on Friday. It provoked an outcry from former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, who lamented the fact that the budget could be passed by parliament without being scrutinized by members.

The UPA-NDA confrontation also thwarted any discussion on the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, which sought to replace an ordinance promulgated in January this year, and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill. The two bills had earlier been passed by the Lok Sabha.

The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill gives more operational flexibility to the RBI in the conduct of monetary policy.