NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to decriminalise minor offences to promote ease of business. The Bill, tabled by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, proposes to amend 183 provisions across 42 Acts administered by 19 ministries including finance, commerce, environment, road transport and highways, ports and electronics.
The Bill was introduced amid protests by the Opposition over the recent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Presenting the bill, Goyal said the government has adopted several measures to promote ease of doing business. He added that the government wants to do away with punishment provisions for minor offences.
“We have to trust people. For minor mistakes, people should not be punished. There should be a provision for paying fines for minor offences,” he said. The minister added that in order to decriminalise offences, the government has repealed about 1,500 old laws, introduced 3,500 norms and simplified 39,000 compliances. According to him, the proposed law will also help reduce the burden on the judiciary.
The bill also proposes the rationalisation of monetary penalties, depending on the gravity of the offence.
The bill was later referred to a 31-member joint committee of Parliament for scrutiny. The joint Parliamentary panel includes Lok Sabha MPs P P Chaudhary, Sanjay Jaiswal, Rajendra Agrawal, Poonam Pramod Mahajan, Gaurav Gogoi, A Raja, and Sougata Ray. The names of 10 members of the Rajya Sabha will be announced later. The committee will be required to submit its report to Parliament in the second
part of the Budget session next year.