Arun Jaitley introduced unprecedented 40 amendments to Finance Bill.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Finance Bill after various amendments presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The minister had proposed to make Aadhaar mandatory for filing of the Income-Tax returns as well as for obtaining the Permanent Account Number (PAN), thereby allowing only cheque contributions to electoral trusts in the session. He also announced capping the limit for cash transactions to Rs. two lakh from April 1 from the earlier proposed Rs. three lakh. "We are moving towards a time when there will be no shadow economy but some are still seeing virtues of cash transactions," said Jaitley in the Lok Sabha, adding no arbitrary power will be given to the Tax Department.
The government on Tuesday proposed to lower cap for cash transactions to Rs 2 lakh from April 1, make biometric identifier Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns and allow cheque-only contributions to electoral trusts as part of the tirade against black money. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved an "unprecedented" 40 amendments to his seven-week old Finance Bill 2017, which were strongly opposed by opposition parties led by the RSP, the TMC and the BJD, which felt the government was tagging along non-tax bills in the legislation to make them Money Bills, obviating the need for a nod from the Rajya Sabha where it does not have a majority yet.
The Opposition termed the introduction of amendments to Acts governing sectoral tribunals like those of Railway Claims, Highway and Cinematograph as "back-door" legislating and taking away right of Parliament to frame laws. Jaitley justified the move, saying the amendments were all "incidental provisions" to the Finance Bill and relate to Budget announcements like combining some tribunals and creating uniform service conditions.
Among the most important amendments was one relating to his February 1 proposal to limit cash transaction to Rs 3 lakh. This cap is now proposed to be lowered to Rs 2 lakh, at par with the current requirement of quoting permanent account number (PAN) for cash spendings. "The penalty for violating this is a fine equivalent to the amount of transaction," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted. The fine will be payable by person or establishment receiving cash. Another amendment made proposes to make Aadhaar number a must while applying for PAN as well as filing of income tax returns from July 1.
The amendment provides that a person holding PAN as on July 1, 2017, has to intimate his Aadhaar number to authority in a manner which will be notified by the government.
"Provided that in case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the permanent account number alloted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid...," the amendments said. An amendment to the Companies Act of 2013 made donations by companies to electoral trusts only through account payee cheque, bank draft or electronic transfer. This amendment also tweaked the language to provide for every company disclosing in its profit and loss account the total amount contributed to such trusts.
With PTI and ANI inputs
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