NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday returned the Finance Bill, 2017 to the Lok Sabha with five amendments.
The move came after the House discussed the Bill for over five hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Bill that was passed earlier by the Lok Sabha was moved in the Upper House on Monday.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh moved amendments to three Clauses of the Bill---- Sections 132, 132(A) and 133 of the Income Tax Act that seek to amend IT Act, 1961.
The House adopted Singh’s amendments after division of votes went in favour of the Opposition.
Likewise, two amendments to the Bill moved by CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury relating to amendments in the Companies Act for political funding were also adopted by the House after division of votes.
Following the adoption of the amendments, the House returned the Bill to the Lok Sabha that will consider the amendments. However, the amendments to a finance Bill are not binding on the Lok Sabha.
During the debate on the Bill, the Opposition charged the Government with bringing in matters unrelated to finance through the Finance Bill. The Opposition also charged that some of the proposed amendments moved by the Government in the original Bill relating to the amendments in the IT Act were “draconian” and will lead to the return of the Inspector raj.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his reply sought to allay the apprehension of the Opposition and defended the Bill saying there is a lot of wild information going around the authority of the assessment officers over search and seizure.
Jaitley said a satisfaction note under Section 132 of the IT Act for conducting search and seizure will be submitted before the court and the amendments are aimed at protecting the identity of the source.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress staged a walkout before the adoption of the amendments to Bill that was subsequently returned to the Lower House.