The Hindu Business Line : Key economic Bills await Parliament nod

THE crucial Budget session of Parliament begins here on Monday with a lot of prominent pending economic legislations such as the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill, the Electricity Bill and the Communications Convergence Bill likely to come up for discussion and passing.

On the opening day , the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, would address both Houses, laying bare the performance of the Government and also its short-term and long-term measures to improve governance in general and economic situation in particular. The usually long Budget session would have a brief interregnum from March 13 till April 6 to enable the Standing Committee to consider the Demands for Grants of Ministries/Departments and prepare their reports on issues being taken up by the House panel.

Some of the important legislative Bills that are pending include the Airports Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, the Financial Companies Regulation Bill, 2002, the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Repeal Bill and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) and Financial Institution Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2000, to bring down the Government holdings in public sector banks to 33 per cent.

These might be taken up for discussion and passage as these are some of the reformist Bills, which are crucial for reviving confidence of the investors and industry, some MPs contend.

For the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), this would be the penultimate Budget with its new Union Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, presenting his maiden Budget amidst widespread expectations.

Political parties are expected to rally around for not doing away with many of the tax exemptions enjoyed by the salaried and non-salaried classes alike as proposed by the Kelkar Committee in its two consultative papers and the final report.

The Union Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, would present the Railway Budget on February 24, which would be followed by the Pre-Budget Economic Survey being prepared by the new Chief Economic Advisor, Dr Ashok Lahiri, and his team of economists in the North Block.

The senior Congress Leader, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, told Business Line here that while the Budget session is as usual to be dominated by economic legislations and the passing of the Budget for the next fiscal, other "real issues" such as price rise and corruption would also figure in the proceedings.

Asked about the recent approval of the Union Cabinet to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill with its various core provisions diluted, Mr Reddy said that if the Standing Committee of Parliament has suggested some measures and if these were duly reflected in the new Bill, the Congress would support it when it comes for discussion and voting.

The CPM leader, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, said that even as the Budget session is to be dominated by economic legislations and other allied issues, other important issues that have a bearing on polity and society would also figure prominently.

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