Opposition got lion's share of Committees in RS

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Opposition got lion's share of Committees in RS

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Sep 14

The Opposition members in Rajya Sabha have been given the lion's share this year when it comes to giving them chairmanship of joint parliamentary standing committees.

Compared to the previous two years, the Opposition benches were given five standing committees of the Upper House instead of four. Rajya Sabha Chairman M.Venkaiah Naidu approved the appointment of chairpersons of the eight Committees under which the ruling BJP gets headship of three Committees. He also approved nomination of Rajya Sabha on the 16 DRSCs of Lok Sabha. Constitution and chairpersons of the 16 DRSCs serviced by the Lok Sabha were also approved by Speaker Om Birla.

Of the DRSCs of Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh (Congress) obtained two committees,

of Congress will head the DRSC on Home Affairs while his party colleague Shri Jairam Ramesh will chair the Committee on Science, Technology, Environment & Forests.

Prof.Ramgopal Yadav (SP) was appointed chairman of Health & Family Welfare committee while Dr. K. Keshava Rao (TRS) is Chairperson of Industry Committee. V.Vijay Sai Reddy (YSRCP) is heading Commerce.

Satyanarayan Jatiya, Bhupendra Yadav and T.G.Venkatesh from BJP are heading three committees.

Main opposition Congress retained it’s quota of chairmanship of two committees.

Venkaiah Naidu held consultations with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Shri Prahlad Joshi before finalising the composition of the committees.

16 Committees fall under the Lok Sabha and in all there are 24 Department Related Standing Committees of both houses.

Govt buckles under Pressure

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Govt buckles under Pressure

It will be Interim Budget now on February 1 

No tinkering with Income-tax code 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Jan 30 

Stung by wide-spread criticism of government's intentions to present a full budget on February 1, the Union Finance ministry today clarified that it will present an “interim budget” . 

Finance ministry officials denied reports in the media that it will be a full budget for the year 2019-20 by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.  

The Ministry official asserted that it will be a vote-on-account, as the Lok Sabha elections are likely to be held in April and May. “The Budget will be called Interim Budget 2019-’20,” Ministry of Finance Official Spokesperson DK Joshi said today. 

The official asserted that there was no confusion in the ministry. However, if there is any policy announcement, it is not a budgetary exercise.

Obviously, the government wants to douse the fire on the issue after shouting from the roof-tops that it had every right to take into account the needs of the people and incorporate the same in the proposed Budget. In fact, Arun Jaitley asserted this in a statement before leaving for the USA for treatment. Some of the Cabinet Ministers of the Modi government have also been saying that several new schemes are at works. 

These assertions sparked condemnation by the Opposition and the Congress even threatened to stage protests if the government presents a full budget instead of a vote-on-account, which is a convention followed by outgoing administrations for decades. Congress leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma had said that such a step would be a “blatant violation of Constitutional propriety”.

Insiders in North Block, however, say that the Interim Budget may not propose any Income-tax related slab changes. But offering relief to targeted section will not fall in the full budget category. 

While several governments have tinkered with indirect taxes, most finance ministers have kept income tax rates unchanged in the interim budget.

In 1977-78, the then finance minister H M Patel  proposed to enable companies to make deposits with the industrial development bank  of india in lieu of payment of surcharge of income tax. The bill proposed the discontinuance of the duty on salt for the year.

In 1980-81, Finance Minister R Venkataram proposed income tax exemption for residents of Ladakh those assesses engaged in poverty alleviation, corporations or other bodies promoting the interests of the Scs/STs.  The Bills proposed to levy auxiliary duties of customs on all imported goods.

In 2004-05, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh proposed levy of national calamity contingent duty on certain items. Amendments  were proposed in baggage rules also. In 2014-15, even Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed changes in customs duty structure on non-edible grade industrial oils, fatty acids and fatty alcohols, Exemption from countervailing duty on specified imported road  construction machinery withdrawn and Concessional customs duty on imported capital goods to encourage domestic production of security paper for printing currency notes

BJP Presidential nominee by June 21

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Special Report 

Presidential candidate

BJP presidential nominee by June 21

Amit Shah meets Naidu & others

3-member ministerial panel working in full swing

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, June 13

The three member ministerial group to hold consultations with the allies and the Opposition parties for the selection of the Presidential candidate held its first meeting this morning.

The meeting was held at the residence of  Urban Development and I&B Minister M Venkiah Nadu, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Interestingly, the BJP president Amit Shah was also present at the meeting.

It is learnt that the name of the BJP’s presidential candidate will be finalized early next week and all consultation process with allies and Opposition parties will be completed by then. An elaborate plan was discussed today to finalise the roadmap, from selection to filing nomination papers, for the party’s Presidential candidate before June 21-22. 

It was somewhat an irony that Venkiah Naidu who was in the reckoning for the President’s post, has been made a member of the selection committee itself.

According to informed sources, the top leaders met to evolve a strategy as who will speak to which party and which groups. While Arun Jaitley will talk to leaders of Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha since he has a very high level of personal relationship with them. He has a great rapport with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Derek Obrian of TMC, Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satish Mishra (BSP), Praful Patel (NCP) and others. He has high level of comfortable relations with Anand Sharma (Congress) and deputy chairman P J Kurien. Amongst the allies, he is close to the Akali Dal leadership and a large number of Independents and smaller parties.

Venkiah Naidu has primarily been charge of talking to all political parties of southern India including Pudducherry and Chief Ministers of various states. The TDP, TRS, various factions of the AIADMK, Janata Dal (S), Rajnath Singh will handle Jammu & Kashmir and North Eastern State Parties and chief ministers.

The task is not only to focus on the Members of Parliament of Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha but also MLAs who will count in a big way. There is a whole battery of smaller parties in states and Independents.

The objective is to talk to all these MPs, MLAs and parties to obtain their in-principle support for the BJP nominee and thereafter talk to the Opposition parties.

As per plan, the ruling NDA will complete the process this week end and thereafter the process of consultations with the Opposition will begin.

The last date for filing nominations is June 28.

Meanwhile, the government constituted  a committee of secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to oversee arrangements for the swearing-in-ceremony of the new president on July 25.

Ends 

Parlt panel to probe EVM tampering in Maha civil polls

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Parlt panel to probe EVM tampering in Maha civil polls

Exclusive 

Complaints from Pune Nashik, Dhule

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 14

The Parliament's Standing committee of Home & Personnel has decided to look into the complaints of EVM tampering during Maharashtra Zilla Parishad and Municipal Committee elections. It is pertinent to mention that earlier the Election Commission had dismissed the petition of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's allegations of EVM tampering in recently held Assembly polls including Uttar Pradesh where Mayawati had made serious allegation of EVM tampering in the recently held Maharashtra Zilla Parishad and Municipal Committee elections.

In an exclusive chat with Lokmat on Tuesday the chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee of Home Affairs, Anand Sharma said, "The committee has received compliants from various cities & districts of Maharashtra giving evidence of tampering of EVM machines."

When ask to elaborate, Sharma said, "We haveWe have received complaints from Pune, Nashik, Dhule and other places of EVM tampering. One candidate alleged that he and his 28 family members cast their votes in the Zila Parishad polls. But the EVM showed zero votes in his favour.” Sharma said that the committee is now seized o these complaints and information is being verified. The Election Commission officials are in touch with the Committee officials and we are going to look into it.”

The standing committee will also look into the Supreme Court order which had said that paper trail must be kept he said. Previously, Mayawati had dismissed the Uttar Pradesh assembly election results and called for fresh polls after BSP's crushing defeat. Mayawati also accused the BJP of murdering democracy saying, "Either the EVMs did not accept votes other than the BJP, or the votes of other parties have gone to BJP through these EVMs."

However the standing committee probing the EVM tampering allegations in itself is set to give a new dimension to the whole issue. The standing commission would also summon electronic engineers, suppliers and experts to look into the matter.

Tussle for RS seats begins in Congress

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

￭ Kapil Sibal may return from Punjab
￭ Party keen on Anand Sharma from HP
￭ Uncertainty over Chidambaram, Jairam Special

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Feb. 7
Former Union minister and senior counsel Kapil Sibal may return to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. Though Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh had shown inclination for Sibal, the party high command has signalled its keenness to nominate Anand Sharma from the state.

To break the GST logjam, FM meets Anand Sharma

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat

EXCLUSIVE

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Dec 6 :

The Central government established its first contact with the Congress for the smooth passage of the long pending GST Bill when Union finance minister Arun Jaitley met the deputy leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha  Anand Sharma. The meeting lasted for nearly an hour on Saturday and Jaitley took time out in between the marriage ceremony functions of his daughter.

This was the first meeting between the BJP and the Congress leaders after the Chief Economic Advisor Arvind  Subramaniam"s report was submitted on Friday signalling a forward movement on the GST Bill. While the Subramaniam Committee has already met one of the crucial demands of the Congress and dropped the 1% inter-state tax for the benefit of manufacturing states, no solution could be found on the ticklish issue of mentioning of standard tax rate in the Constitution Amendment Bill. Another issue that cropped up during the Jaitley-Sharma meeting was exclusion of alcohol, real estate, electricity and petroleum from the GST regime. The Congress wants them to be included at the outset of the GST regime.

But the Subramaniam panel has suggested that these can be brought under the GST within 3-5 years time-frame. The GST regime can be strengthened gradually rather than going whole hog and implement the same in one go on April 1, 2016. The final draft of the GST Bill will be presented to the Rajya Sabha only after these discussions are taken to a logical conclusion. While Anand Sharma will brief his senior party leaders of the proposals made by the government, Jaitley will have to work hard to bring states on board. The GST Bill may have been listed for the week beginning Monday in the Rajya Sabha but it will take some shape only on Thursday and the final decision on the Bill only in the third week of December. Besides, both sides agreed that steps be taken to ensure creating a congenial atmosphere in Parliament and way out be found on the Gen. V K Singh issue. The Congress has already decided not to allow minister of state for external affairs Gen. V K Singh to speak in Parliament.