The Hindu Business Line : Budget session — Will pending Bills get time?

There is a large backlog of Bills that have a bearing on economy as well the nation's polity. Though both the Houses are yet to come out with the agenda of business, it is common knowledge that a large number of Bills are pending over several past sessions. The Lok Pal Bill, hanging fire for decades, is one such.

THE BUDGET session of Parliament begins under exciting circumstances, in the backdrop of elections to three State Assemblies, including Bihar. Counting of votes is scheduled for February 27, just a day before the Union Budget 2005-06 is presented. The outcome of the year's first Assembly polls may leave a lasting impact on Parliament, perhaps leading to change of political equations.

Apart from the political fallout of the polls, nature's upheaval that came in the form of an hither-to-unfamiliar tsunami on December 26 and left in its trail death and devastation in vast areas is expected to dominate the early part of the three-and-half-month session. Controversy had already been raked up over whether the Government could have taken some precautionary action to minimise death and destruction. Members from the affected States are expected to call for liberal loans and even grants for rehabilitation of the victims and renewal of vast infrastructure. Faced with the task of presenting an already difficult Budget because of various pulls and pressures inherent to a coalition set-up, the resource demand on tsunami account is bound to make the Finance Minister's job all the more unenviable.

Politically, the Justice Bannerjee interim report on the Godhra carnage and the Justice Nanavati report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots are certain to provide grist to the Opposition mill. The Bharatiya Janata Party has given notice on this count. Alleging that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government was not publishing the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as it indicted "many prominent Congressmen", it has threatened to stall the session if the contents were not made public.

It is also peeved that the Banerjee interim report on the Godhra fire "was given so much wide publicity because the Railways Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, wanted to use it politically". The party is also certain to raise the issue of the Goa Governor, Mr S. C. Jamir, dismissing the BJP-led Government in the State under controversial and unclear circumstances.

The session will begin on February 25 with the President, Mr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's address to the joint sitting of both the Houses. He is expected to unveil the government's policies and stand on a variety of issues, both national and international. Both the Houses will have separate discussions on separate motions of thanks to the President's address. Subject to exigencies of government business, the session is likely to conclude on May 13. The Railway Budget is to be presented on February 26. On February 25, the Economic Survey, which gives an overview of the performance in various sectors and the future projections, will be tabled. The House will adjourn on March 24 to meet again on April 18 so that the Parliamentary Standing Committees can consider the demands for grants of Ministries and Departments and prepare their reports.

The session has a large backlog of Bills that have a bearing on economy as well the nation's polity. Though both the Houses are yet to come out with the agenda of business, it is common knowledge that a large number of Bills are pending over several past sessions.

The Lok Pal Bill, hanging fire for decades, is one such. Though introduced in the past, the Bill was never taken up for consideration for want of political unanimity as well as political will, especially with regard to the inclusion of the office of the Prime Minister within the scrutinising purview of the Lok Pal who will be empowered to go in to charges of corruption against the highest executive office. By all accounts, the Bill is likely to be a non-starter once again. Evidence for this has come in the form of the Government's recent decision to appoint a Group of Ministers to consider bringing the Judiciary under the purview of the proposed Lok Pal. Another Bill is the Women's Reservation legislation that is also pending for years because of political hypocrisy and want of sincerity and real political will. It appears the nation's women have a long drawn battle on their hands.

Economically, the most important piece of legislation is in the area of Patent Amendment that is mandatory under the World Trade Organisation commitment. The Bill that was listed for the winter session was not taken up for want of unanimity. Government promulgated an ordinance to give effect to the provisions of the Bill from January 2005 as per WTO conditions. The main opposition to the Bill came from the Left that had warned the Government against rushing through the Patents (Amendment) Bill to meet the WTO's January 1 deadline, contending it was inadequate in addressing concerns related to healthcare and development of indigenous pharmaceutical industry. The Bill was stalled despite a consensus between the Congress and the BJP to pass it before December-end so that government met its commitment to have in place by January 1 a regime that is compliant with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

By official indications, the government may consider "fine-tuning" the rules of the legislation to address the concerns raised by different quarters. Parliament is poised to witness a battle of wits between the Left Parties and the Treasury Benches when the Bill to replace the Ordinance is taken up, possibly early in the session. Official circles maintain that pharmaceutical, legal, bio-chemical and software sectors are largely said to be satisfied with the Ordinance and are open to ideas and suggestions to fine-tune the amendments to patent rules and law. Their main worry is that issues such as the scope of patenting, compulsory licensing, rights of the Central and state governments in health emergencies, technology transfer and parallel imports remain unresolved.

Two other Ordinances that are to be converted into Bills and passed are the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2005 and the Central Excise Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2005.Among other pieces of economic legislation pending before Parliament are the National Tax Tribunal Bill, 2004, that was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 6, 2004; the Government Securities Bill, 2004, introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 21, 2004; the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2004, introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 23, 2004, the last day of the last winter session; the Seeds Bill, 2004; and the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Bill, pending in the Rajya Sabha. All these Bills are expected to be taken up on a priority basis during the Budget session.

However, the legislation that is equally sensitive both economically and politically is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 21, 2004. It was an extraction from the Left parties that are backing the UPA Government from outside. The provisions of the Bill are somewhat diluted compared to what was promised in the Common Minimum Programme. The Bill will now cover people below the poverty line in 500 identified sensitive districts. Even this would require an enormous outlay to implement the scheme. Asked by the Opposition on how he proposed to generate the resources, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, simply replied: "We will find the resources when we implement the scheme."

One may find the exact answer in his proposals on the `B-Day' — February 28. However, the one big imponderable is how Mr Chidambaram is going to reconcile such a populist measure to his known dislike of deficit financing.

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamani_rc@yahoo.co.uk)

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