With the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government not having enough numbers in Parliament to pass its various financial sector legislation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday sought industry’s support to convince the political parties to support these Bills.
At the customary post-Budget session with industry chambers CII, Ficci and Assocham, he said the government needed the support of 273 members in the Lok Sabha and 125 in the Rajya Sabha to get these Bills passed. The UPA had this number in the lower house but not in the upper house, he said.
“These Bills will send strong signals. Their passage does not depend on me alone. If the parties agree, they can be passed in this session itself. They are held up because of numbers,” he added.
In his Budget speech yesterday, he had proposed to move six financial sector legislation, including the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Life Insurance Corpration (Amendment) Bill, the revised pension reforms Bill and the Banking Laws Amendment Bill.
The finance minister said he cannot introduce even a central GST, as suggested by some opposition members, in case the states do not support the proposed GST structure, without the Constitution Amendment Bill. Besides two-third members in both houses of Parliament, the amendment requires the approval of at least half the states.
“I am ready to go the extra mile to accommodate the views of the states on GST, but they should also travel with me,” he said, adding that much of the ground work to roll out GST had been done.
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GST was slated to be rolled out from April 1. The Centre is now trying to introduce it from April 1, 2012. It has been held up due to differences between the Centre and some states, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled ones.
Concerned at the possibility of a further increase in global oil prices, Mukherjee assured industry that the fiscal deficit would be reined in at 4.6 per cent of the gross domestic product, as mentioned in the Budget. There should not be any skepticism in this regard as the number was arrived at after careful calculation, he said.
He said the government spent an additional Rs 50,000 crore on infrastructure, social sector and extra subsidies this financial year as it got money from sale of spectrum for 3G and wireless broadband access services.
“I must emphasise that it was one-off event. We are moving on fiscal consolidation,” he said.
Worry over inflation
The finance minister also expressed concern over rising global prices of crude oil and other commodities. He said this could put pressure on domestic inflation.
“The creeping increase in international crude oil and other commodity prices is a reality that we are already confronting,” he said at an annual general meeting of industry chamber Ficci.