Lok Sabha rejects Rajya Sabha’s amendments, passes Finance Bill

The Budget for 2017-18 got the Parliamentary seal of approval on Thursday with the Lok Sabha passing the Finance Bill 2017.

The Finance Bill 2017 was passed by the Lower House after all the five recommended amendments of the Rajya Sabha were rejected through a voice vote. The Finance Bill 2017 will now go to the President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent.

Thursday’s developments would mean that the Government’s recent move to remove the existing cap — 7.5 per cent of net profit of last three financial years — on donation by companies to political parties would get enacted into law despite the Rajya Sabha recommending the re-introduction of the limit.

Also, corporates would not be required to disclose in their financial statements the name of the political party receiving the contributions from them. The Rajya Sabha’s recommendation requiring the disclosure of the name of the political party was also not accepted by the Lower House.

Electoral bonds Through the Finance Bill 2017-18, the Modi-led Government had introduced several reforms as part of its attempts to make electoral funding more clean and transparent. Besides introducing the concept of electoral bonds, the Finance Bill 2017 has provided a framework where donations to political parties could be made only through cheques or digital mode. Small cash donations up to ₹2,000 are also being permitted.

Replying to the discussions on the amendments recommended by the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley on Thursday told the Lok Sabha that he was against the amendments of the Rajya Sabha. The amendments of the Rajya Sabha cannot be accepted as it would limit the number of donors to political parties, it was pointed out.

The amendments recommended by the Rajya Sabha cannot be accepted, but the Government was open to suggestions from political parties, including the Congress and the BJD, to make electoral funding more clean and transparent, he said.

“The harsh reality is we continue to do politics on the basis of undeclared money, because if we do it on the basis of declared money... somebody will write an editorial and will have a problem with every solution we offer,” Jaitley said.

“I have an open invitation to all, please suggest to me a better system which will ensure clean money and transparency to the extent possible. I am yet to receive a single suggestion. I am only hearing adjectives like ‘it must be clean’, ‘it must be transparent’. Please give me ideal combination of the two. We are willing to consider it. I will wait for a specific suggestion” .

Jaitley said most of the donations that come to political parties now are from unclean money and there was complete non- transparency.

Lok Sabha did not also accept the taxation amendments recommended by the Rajya Sabha, especially the ones that sought to temper down the unbridled powers sought to be provided to the taxman during his search and seizure operations.

Defending the Government’s decision in keeping the “satisfaction note” away from the target of investigation, Jaitley said there was not a single instance since 1961 when a “satisfaction note” was ever revealed to a target of investigation.

“It would be disastrous to do that,” he said. The Finance Bill provides that taxman is not obliged to share such “satisfaction note” — which is the basis on which search and survey operations are initiated — up to the level of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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