Govt to hold interactions with political parties tomorrow

Seeking the passage of a number of bills as also the ordinance on food security, government will hold interactions with various political parties tomorrow ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning August 5.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath has called the all-party meeting in which Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is the Leader of the Lok Sabha, and Finance Minister P Chidambaram will be present.

Ministers of state for Parliamentary Affairs Paban Singh Ghatowar and Rajiv Shukla will also be present at the meeting.

The session being held from August 5 to 30 has just 16 working days at a time when there are 116 pending legislations.

The passage of the food security ordinance is expected to take precedence over other legislative business.

Chidambaram has already said that official amendments to the DTC bill, which seeks to overhaul the over 50-year-old income tax law, will be introduced towards the end of Monsoon session. The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in 2010 and Standing Committee on Finance has given a report after its scrutiny.

The Finance Ministry has on its platter bills like the insurance act amendment and pension fund bill that aim to boost the FDI in the two sectors. Key tax reforms like the Goods and Services Tax Bill is also awaiting Parliament's nod.

Though no key economic reforms related bill got passed in the past two years, the UPA is confident of getting the parliamentary nod for the insurance, the pension and the direct tax code bills in this session.

The Budget session which concluded on May 8 was one of the least productive sessions of Parliament which approved the Union Budget 2013-14 as also the Railway Budget without any discussion. Only two bills -- besides the customary money bills - received the lawmakers' nod.