Passage of bills: Why a likely new record in July may be difficult to break

The inclusion of as many as 17 bills within the Finance Bill would automatically make them money bills and ensure their post-haste clearance without much debate

5 min read Last Updated : Jul 17 2019 | 3:20 PM IST

Obliterating all past records, July will see the passage of the largest even number of government bills through Parliament, in one month. The government has already introduced 16 bills in this session, but the list could have more than doubled, had the number of bills cleared through the Finance Bill been added to it.

Finance (No.2) Bill, 2019 has within its pages, amendments to 17 acts, excluding those related to direct and indirect taxes, amendments of Goods and Services Act and those for changes in earlier Finance Acts. Of these 17, most have some monetary aspects, but not all would qualify as money bills. Yet, as they are now part of the Finance Bill, they would qualify as money bills, which means the Rajya Sabha will have hardly any scope to debate on them and in any case, they have to be cleared post-haste within July as part of the Budget. The number of bills in the Miscellaneous section of the Finance Bill, at 18, reached its highest in Budget 2018-19.

As expected, some of the changes made in the relevant acts are fairly lightweight like the change in the termination date for the erstwhile Unit Trust of India, extended from March 31, 2019 to March 31, 2021. But others are significant, like the amendment to the General Insurance (Nationalisation) Act. Clause 148 of the Finance (No 2) Bill, 2019 has replaced the words 'only four companies' to 'up to four companies'. This clears the way for the merger of one or more of the public sector insurance companies, as per the plan announced in Budget 2018.

The jury is also out on whether the amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, to give it more powers to deal with the boards of non-banking financial companies as well as taking back the regulatory powers over housing finance companies from the National Housing Bank, needed the cover of the Finance Bill. These are far reaching changes and mostly welcome from the point of view of reducing the risks in the financial sector. It is also possible that had they been introduced as standalone bills, the standing committee on finance would have demanded the right to examine those with consequent delays. Note that the changes would not have affected the government’s powers to provide additional financial support to them, as as the Budget has promised. Analysts would have to take a call if the financial support to public sector banks of a one time six months' partial credit guarantee for first loss of up to 10 per cent for credits offered to NBFCs should have been rung in without the simultaneous enhancement of the powers of RBI. If both has to run concurrent, then the government has been correct to make the changes in the powers of RBI vis a vis the NBFCs through the Finance Bill.

In any case these are big numbers and carries the trend begun by the previous NDA government to get substantial acts passed under the rubric of the Finance Act each year (see table). Taken together with the standalone bills, the month of July will set a record that might stand for a long time. The first opportunity to eclipse it can only happen in February 2020, when Ms Sitharam introduces her second budget. The numbers for July could rise even further since the month is only half way through. Seven of the bills introduced in Parliament have already got the approval of both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

In addition to this list, the government would steer the final appropriation bill to authorise expenditure through the year. According to data with PRS Legislative Research, the average time spent together by both houses to debate and clear the seven acts was just above 6 hours each. Since the budget exercise would be over in both houses before the end of July, many of the standing committees that examine the demands for grants of the various departments in depth, would get the chance to do so post July. Normally the committees get a three week window between the two halves of the budget session to examine these which would not be possible this time. This is however not surprising as it repeats every five years when there is a general elections.

The bills that have made through Parliament include the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019. It offers a choice to citizens to use either Aadhaar or other modes to verify their identity and no person shall be denied any service for not having an Aadhaar number. The other is the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that amends the time period to reduce the time period for supersession of the MCI from three years to two years. The Bill also increased the strength of the Board from seven members to 12 members. And there is the The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2019 which among other things will include building up capacity in New Delhi to (i) facilitating conduct of arbitration and conciliation in a professional, timely and cost-effective manner; and (ii) promoting studies in the field of alternative dispute resolution.