The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill is set to miss another deadline of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, even as the government waits anxiously for its clearance.
The Bill proposes to increase the foreign direct investment limit in the sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. It has been with the committee since 2008.
The panel, chaired by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yashwant Sinha, was scheduled to meet the coming Monday to adopt the report. The meeting has been cancelled.
According to the rules, the government can’t proceed with a Bill that it is pending before a standing committee of Parliament. But once the report is given, the government can reject any of the recommendations. This is the second time in as many months when the report has been deferred. The latest comes after the showdown at the April 28 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, where pro-government members rejected a draft report on the telecom spectrum allocation controversy.
The PAC is chaired by Sinha’s senior party colleague, Murli Manohar Joshi, who had approved the draft. Sinha is also a PAC member.
CPI(M)’s Mainul Hassan, a member of the committee, said, “The committee is going on a study tour from June 13. Maybe that is why the chairman decided against calling a meeting next week.”
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The committee will visit Leh, Jammu and Srinagar on June 13-17.
The committee was also scheduled to discuss the demand for grants for the corporate affairs ministry and a few other issues.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee have publicly said that they were keen to table the legislation in Parliament. Mukherjee mentioned the Bill as part of the government’s key agenda in his Budget speech.