Though hopes of a smooth running of Parliament are still dim, the Government is expecting that the Opposition may cooperate Monday onwards in passing key Bills related to disability, maternity benefit, employees’ compensation and HIV.
But with no thaw in sight yet, the Congress on Sunday issued a whip in the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, asking its members to be present on Monday.
The treasury side expects that that the lok Sabha may take up a discussion on the Taxation laws (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, “which is incidental to the demonetisation move of November 8” and have voting. “Once the bill comes back to lok Sabha from Rajya Sabha a full-fledged discussion and voting too may take place,” they claimed and pointed to the Opposition demand in the lower house that discussion under demonetisation must take place under a rule entailing voting.
The Government has maintained that it has been in touch with the Opposition parties “informally and formally” to break the impasse in the Parliament. The Rajya Sabha had initiated a debate on the demonetisation for two days starting November 16 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Upper House twice. The Opposition is expected to formulate amendments to the Tax bill in the Upper house that would be thereafter be sent to the lok Sabha.
The lok Sabha had on November 29 passed the bill, within minutes and without any discussion, that seeks to tax money deposited in banks post demonetisation, marking the first legislative business during the two-week-old Winter Session which has been paralysed by the Opposition.
The Bill was passed by the lower House after eight days of total washout. The Rajya Sabha, however, again failed to transact any business because of pandemonium on demonetisation.
The Government hopes that some of the bills having “major impact” on the well-being of the public could be passed by Parliament before December 16 when the session concludes.
“It is the duty of the Opposition to take these bills forward and pass the benefits to the people as they are blocked because Parliament is not functional,” said a Cabinet Minister.
Meanwhile, queering the pitch over the demonetisation controversy, Congress leader P Chidambaram raised questions about the Modi Government’s Income Declaration Scheme, saying there could be “more holes” in the amnesty scheme after a Gujarati realtor claimed that `13,860 crore black money he had announced did not belong to him. “There is a `13,860 crore hole in the `65,000 crore IDS! How many more holesIJ,” Chidambaram tweeted.