Country can't wait for reforms, Jaitley says as bankruptcy Bill hits a barrier

Asserts that economic legislation has to go on and the country cannot wait in the "critical" times

The Lok Sabha on Monday took up the bankruptcy code Bill amid demands by some parties to refer it to a parliamentary standing committee.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that economic legislation has to go on and the country cannot wait in the “critical” times.

“We can play these Parliamentary tactics but the world is not going to wait, this country is not going to wait, the economic legislation has to go on,” Jaitley said.

“What is the quick way out by which we can consult everybody, have the wisdom of all the sections and then legislate. Or, is it only an obstacle race where there is one party which wants to create obstacles and my only job is to jump over those obstacles? That is not how a legislation is framed in this country.” he said.

The Bill, which proposes to make it easier for insolvent companies to exit business, was taken up after resistance by some opposition parties like Trinamool Congress and BJD whose members argued that they had not got enough time to study the proposed legislation.

Finance Minister Jaitley, while moving the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill for consideration and passage, said the country was going through a “critical” phase and “economic legislation has to go on”.

Underlining that the Bill was an important legislation, he said it should not “go from committee to committee” as the “country cannot wait” for reforms.

When leaders of Trinamool and BJD resisted, Jaitley said he was willing to refer it to a joint committee of Parliament if the Opposition could come to any agreement on that. But it should be taken up for discussion in the meanwhile, he said.

Referring to the demand of the members to send the Bill to a Standing Committee for examination, Jaitley wanted to know what should the government do in case the Rajya Sabha neglects the wisdom of the Standing Committee and the Bill is again referred to a joint committee. He said it will only mean wastage of time.

Jaitley was referring to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill which is being held up in the Rajya Sabha, though it was first approved by the Standing Committee and later by a Select Committee of the Upper House.