AMN
The Rajya Sabha has returned the Finance Bill 2017 to the Lok Sabha with five amendments moved by the opposition. Of the five amendments, three were moved by Digvijay Singh of Congress and two by Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M.
The bill gives effect to the financial proposals of the central government for the financial year 2017-18. Trinamool Congress, which has 10 members, staged a walkout before the voting in the House.
Replying to the debate, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the bill protects the source of information related to tax evasion. He said the reasons for search and seizure by Income Tax officers will be recorded but will not to be given to the assessee.
On making the Aadhar mandatory with PAN card for Income Tax return, the Minister said the advantages of the technology should be utilised in public interest. Allaying fears of opposition members on the security of the Aadhar data, Mr. Jaitley said that misuse of the privacy of Aadhar data will be punishable.
Responding Congress leader P Chidamabaram question whether the government could give guarantee that the Aadhaar details would not be leaked through hacking, the Finance Minister said while hacking could not be ruled out, the firewalls should be made stronger.
He said that to expand the tax base, lowest slab of Income Tax rates have been brought down from ten per cent to five per cent. Justifying the reduction of number of tribunals, the Finance Minister said that many of tribunals have not enough work.
Additional benches will be set up if there is workload. He also assured the House that judicial appointments in the tribunals will be made in consultation with the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He said that the government has made a provision of electoral bond to cleanse the political funding and asked the opposition to adopt positive approach.