The finance ministry has informed the parliamentary affairs ministry that the Fiscal Responsibility Bill as well as three other Bills relating to the amendment and repeal of economic laws, must be passed in the Budget session beginning tomorrow with the President's address to the joint session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
These Bills should be passed before the first summer recess on May 13, senior government officials told Business Standard.
The Fiscal Responsibility Bill joins the list of contentious Bills slated for introduction during the Budget session of Parliament and promises to make the session a stormy one. Although several in the Congress have said that in principle the idea of fiscal responsibility is good, there is a problem with state governments accepting a central fiat that if the states do not display a quantifiable level of fiscal responsibility, they will get no funds from the Centre.
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Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress leader Shivraj Patil, who was heading the standing committee that discussed the Bill, had recommended that no quantifiable limit for misdemeanour be prescribed. The finance ministry is loath to accept this, but some preliminary discussions have taken place.
However, indications are that the expectation of Speaker Manohar Joshi, that the Budget session will go through as smoothly as the winter session which did record business, might be belied.
The must-pass Bills listed by the finance ministry is long: the repeal of Sica Bill, the banking services repeal Bill, the merchant shipping amendment Bill, the unorganised sector workers