Will not allow political obstructionism to stop Insurance Bill: FM

After prolonged delay, the GST bill was introduced in Lok Sabha yesterday

A day after introducing the long-pending GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government is "extremely determined" to push insurance sector reforms and will not allow political obstructionism to stop it.

"The government is extremely determined to go ahead with this (insurance sector) reform and will not allow a Parliamentary disturbance to obstruct or delay a reform of this kind," he said while addressing a Ficci function.

Without naming Trinamool Congress, Jaitley said that the political party, whose members are allegedly involved in chit fund scam, is trying to divert the attention by creating obstruction in the functioning of Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority of its own.

The minister regretted that although the insurance bill, which seeks to raise the FDI cap from 26% to 49%, was approved by the Standing Committee of Parliament and the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha, "political obstructionism is being used to ensure it does not come on the agenda of Parliament."

Observing that such attitude cannot stop a reform which has support of overwhelming majority, Jaitley said, "there are enough safeguards, and the constitutional system can deal with and effectively defeat this policy of political obstructions."

Jaitley said that with more and more state assemblies going to polls, the ability of the members in the Rajya Sabha to create obstruction will get 'further diluted.'

Coal bill is another important legislation which is being held up due to political obstructionism in the Rajya Sabha, he said, adding "it is a bill which has been unanimously passed by the Lok Sabha. All doubts have been cleared. It was not allowed to come on the agenda of Upper House for discussion."

After prolonged delay, Jaitley yesterday introduced the GST bill in Lok Sabha, which will create a single tax for goods and services across the country from April 2016.