Govt may take money Bill route to pass key legislation: Arun Jaitley
Jaitley said that considering that the recent Parliament session was wasted, it was time to set a good convention, as in the UK, to get legislative sanctions.
Jaitley said that considering that the recent Parliament session was wasted, it was time to set a good convention, as in the UK, to get legislative sanctions. "I think it is about time that we set up some good conventions in order to decide as the British did, as to how do you get legislative sanction when it is required for a reform. My own answer to this has been that it is the strength of public opinion, safeguards such as joint-sessions, safeguards such as money Bills, which provide for legislation and part of the answer," he said at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave.
Referring to Rajya Sabha blocking key Bills passed by the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said, "Till what extent can the indirectly-elected House hold reform proposals passed by the directly elected house which represents the will of the people? The time has come to debate on this crucial question, to find out a conventional answer to this problem."
Taking a dig at "families" controlling political parties, he said less number of businesses are now family-controlled with the start-up revolution. "You can't have individual ambitions obstruct a popular mandate. Less and less businesses are controlled by families due to start-ups, but more political parties are family controlled. Families that control parties believe that they have a divine right to be in power," he said. "Such tendencies lead to a right to obstruct. It is time we set up conventions as the British did to ensure we get legislative sanctions," he said.
Regarding the goods and services tax, Jaitley said even in Rajya Sabha, the mandate was with the government as it had regional parties supporting the Bill.
"India is getting increasingly polarised between those who want to grow and those who want to obstruct. We have seen a very disappointing but a very educative Parliament session coming to an end. One needs to understand the politics of reform to assess the growth story," he said.
Earlier, while launching SIDBI's India Aspiration Fund (IAF) and Sidbi Make in India Loan for Enterprises (SMILE), Jaitley said, "India is becoming more aspirational than probably some of its politicians" and law makers who are seen to be "obstructionists of policies" should gauge the mood of the people before they conceive and plan policies. SIDBI chairman and MD Kshatrapati Shivaji said IAF, a fund of funds system, was being launched with an initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore. The Rs 10,000 crore SMILE is intended to take forward the government's 'Make in India' campaign and help MSEs to meet the required debt-equity ratio as well as pursuing opportunities for growth of SMEs, he said. MoS for Finance Jayant Sinha said there should be more domestic venture capital funds to meet the needs of start-ups.
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