Dear friends,
As you must be aware, the Government has been abusing the provisions related with Money Bill and Finance Bill for a long time. Any fruitful debates on the controversial Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Bill, 2016 were avoided by tabling it as a ‘Money Bill’. Recently, the government has gone a step further and in a blatant fashion, on 22nd March, 2017, the government has passed the Finance Bill, 2017 in the Lok Sabha. This 92-page document includes 40 amendments to a number of Acts.
As per this Bill, the Aadhaar card will be mandatory to file income-tax returns from July 1. The legislation also makes the unique ID compulsory to apply for a Permanent Account Number (PAN). The Finance Bill includes amendments to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, Companies Act, Employees Provident Fund Act, Information Technology Act, Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Act etc. It also allows funding of political parties to become even more opaque, increasing the potential for corruption.
The Bill, if passed, would bring about drastic changes in a number of laws and regulations. And the Rajya Sabha is being denied of its chance to even discuss it and check any unconstitutionality therein. This undemocratic and unconstitutional act of the Government must be condemned and opposed.
Hence, we have drafted a statement to be sent to the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha requesting him to protect the democratic interests of the people of India by passing a ruling/resolution that this Bill is not a money Bill and by classifying it so, the rights of the Rajya Sabha and through it the people of India have been abrogated. It is of course pointless writing to the government or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha because they have already ignored the objections raised and used their majority in the Lok Sabha to amend crucial legislation in this country. The attempt of this letter is to try and use every means possible to ensure that this Bill is brought to proper democratic scrutiny in both houses of Parliament.
We also plan to send copies of this letter to members of the Rajya Sabha from different parties so that they might also move a resolution stating that this bill cannot and should not be considered a money bill.
If you are in agreement with the attached letter then please do send your endorsements to us at arunaroy@gmail.com (with ‘Endorsed/Name/Organisation or Institution’ written in the subject line).
In Solidarity,
Aruna Roy
Jayati Ghosh
Nikhil Dey