By IANS,
New Delhi : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed regret at largely empty opposition benches when a legislative business as important as the Finance Bill was being debated upon and voted in the Lok Sabha.
Drawing from his sharp memory he is famous for, the finance minister said as compared to the first budget of independent India — the size of which was just Rs.200 crore divided between civil and military spending — India has come a long way.
“There was a time when 60 percent of the business of this house concerned finance, money and related legislative matters,” he said, adding: “I feel sad I have to get the Finance Bill approval in the absence of principal opposition parties.”
He said as per the constitution, the government had no authority to spend even a single rupee without the approval of the Lok Sabha, nor could any money be withdrawn from the consolidated fund of India.
That’s the reason, he felt, all members should have participated in the process.
A section of opposition members, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), decided to stay away after a denial of their demand that the house first take up for discussion a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his WikiLeaks comments.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj Tuesday morning gave the notice for the privilege motion against the prime minister for “misleading” the house with his remark that a probe panel on the 2008 bribe-for-votes scam had found insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion.
Mukherjee presented the federal budget of Rs.12.58 lakh crore (Rs.12.58 trillion or $280 billion) last month and the debate Tuesday was on one of its components — the Finance Bill, 2011 — which mainly contains the taxation proposals.
During the course of his speech, the finance minister also announced some relief, based on feedback from members and industry, including the roll-back of 5 percent service tax on healthcare.
He also gave excise relief to small scale firms in the ready-made garments business to tide over the impact of customs duty. He said other suggestions cannot be accommodated as fiscal consolidation was necessary, along with growth.
The house later approved the bill, including some point-by-point clauses, by voice vote.