The Hindu Business Line : Monsoon session to clear employment guarantee Bill

THE monsoon session of Parliament from Monday to August 26 is scheduled to clear the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004. It will also see the introduction of a slew of Bills of economic legislative importance with the Government making maximum use of the short session.

Sources in the Government told Business Line that, with the principal Opposition party BJP locked in its own inner-party dissensions and the Left parties voicing their concern over the UPA Government's economic reform, policies such as disinvestment of BHEL and the recent visit of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to the US where he had sought nuclear energy co-operation for civilian purpose after accepting non-proliferation norms, the Government would attempt to keep the short session politically less charged by bringing in several Bills of economic importance.

The sources said 29 Bills are slated for introduction. Most of them are economic legislation for freeing the economy from controls and simplifying procedures to remove bottlenecks for manufacturing activities.

For instance, as set out in the Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy announced on March 31, 2005, the Cess Laws (Repeal) Bill to abolish cess on export of agricultural products would be introduced, considered and passed to give relief to exporters through exemption from all cess on exportable commodities.

Similarly, it is proposed to introduce the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill to usher in a tighter export control and improve the system of levying and realising fiscal penalties in special economic zones.

Other vital Bills to be introduced during the monsoon session include the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 to amend the Competition Act, 2002 in the light of the Supreme Court judgment on the reconstitution of the board of members and the Chairman of the Commission, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill to delete a number of essential commodities to facilitate free trade and commerce, the Forward Contracts Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2005 to make the parent Act more effective and purposeful in tune with the liberalisation of the markets and the Factories (Amendment) Bill to impart flexibility in employment of women during the night shift in a factory.

Also lined up for introduction in the forthcoming session are the Electricity (Amendment) Bill to amend the Electricity Act, the Labour Laws (exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments) Bill to simplify the forms of registers and returns prescribed under various labour laws and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) and Financial Institutions Laws (Amendment) Bill, which among others, seek to increase the post of whole time directors from two to four and make Government share transferable, as a preliminary step and prerequisite for eventual divestment of shares to the desired extent by the Government in the banking segment.

Yet another important piece of legislation is the Food Safety and Standards Bill to bring about a single statue pertaining to food to do away with extant multiplicity of food laws/regulators, to lay down standards based on science, transparency and consultation and to establish a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to pool infrastructure, manpower, testing facilities.

The sources said the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, introduced in the Budget session and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, might not come for up consideration during the monsoon session as four members of the Left parties have voiced dissent on the Bill, raising concern over allowing private fund players and their proclivity to dabble in equity markets with pension funds.

Besides these crucial Bills, the House might take up the Bihar Budget 2005-06 for discussion and passing, as the State is under President rule. The monsoon session will also see the first batch of supplementary demands for grants (General) and also (Railways) for 2005-06.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Monsoon session to clear employment guarantee Bill