The Government is planning a heavy legislative agenda for next week in Parliament, even as the Opposition is gearing up to create hurdles in the passage of the Goods and Services Tax bill.
The Government is planning a heavy legislative agenda for next week in Parliament, even as the Opposition is gearing up to create hurdles in the passage of the Goods and Services Tax bill.
The bills on GST, black money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and land boundary agreement are listed to be taken up after May 5, government sources said on Wednesday. However, the government is keeping its cards close to its chest on when it would take up the contentious land acquisition bill.
While the Centre is exuding confidence on being able to pass the other three bills, Opposition parties– Congress, Left, AIADMK, BJD and Trinamool Congress, which together form a chunk of 145 seats in Lok Sabha, are likely to insist on the GST bill being referred to a standing committee. Being a constitution amendment bill, it requires a two-third majority for its passage. The BJP-led NDA has a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha but in Rajya Sabha it would be faced with a numerical disadvantage.
The government is banking on Congress not opposing a bill which the party itself had advocated. However, the Congress said it was opposed to the manner in which the GST was being initiated and the party would take a call on its stand after detailed discussions within the parliamentary party and taking into account national consensus.
"The Indian National Congress has been a proponent of a common Goods and Services Tax regime across India. However, the party is opposed to the manner and fashion in which the initiation of the GST regime is being pushed through by the BJP without appropriate discussions with all stakeholders and bringing everyone on board," Rajiv Gowda, MP and Spokesperson said.
On the black money bill, the government does not see any impediments in its passage as being a money bill it cannot be blocked by the Rajya Sabha. The bill seeks to charge 30 per cent tax annually on undisclosed foreign income and assets.
However, some Opposition parties are planning to demand that the bill be referred to a select committee. The BJP had made the black money issue one of its key poll planks in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
With just a week left of the session in Lok Sabha, the government is hoping to get the land swap deal or Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), also a constitutional amendment, passed. The bill, brokered between former PM Manmohan Singh with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina in 2011, seeks to redraw the incongruous Indo- Bangladesh border with each country transferring area under adverse possession and enclaves to the other. Under the LBA, India will transfer 111 enclaves (land with people belonging to Bangladesh but encircled by Indian Territory) measuring 17, 160.63 acres to Bangladesh and will receive from Bangladesh 51 enclaves measuring 7, 110.2 acres.
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