Amid political debate on whether the GST should be a money or financial bill, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said that the content of the Bill will decide if it is a money or a financial bill.
Amid political debate on whether the GST should be a money or financial bill, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said that the content of the Bill will decide if it is a money or a financial bill.
“If it has provision only about money then it will be a money bill. However, in case the final Bill will have provisions other then money, then it will be financial bill. Right now what politicians are doing is that they are debating whether it should be money bill or financial bill without seeing the content,-" Mr Kashyap told this newspaper.
A Money Bill requires the approval of the Lok Sabha only. In case, a Money Bill is not returned by the Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha within a period of 14 days from the date of its receipt, it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which it was passed by the Lok Sabha after the expiry of said period.
It is only the financial Bill which require the nod of both the Lower and Upper House. The NDA government does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
During the debate on the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednes-day, the Congress and other opposition parties urged the government that GST bill — CGST and IGST — should be brought as financial bill as these are of national importance and Upper house should debate it.
However, finance minister Arun Jaitley didn’t give a firm assurance whether the GST will be brought as financial bill. All, which Mr Jaitley yielded was to assure that the Rajya Sabha can debate on these two enabling bills.
Mr Kashyap said that it will be the privilege of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to decide whether a Bill is a money Bill or financial Bill.
On argument by some that GST Bill being important should also be brought as financial bill, Mr Kashyap pointed out that one of the most important financial duty of the house is Union Budget which is a money Bill. “The Constitution is very clear on what is money bill and what is financial bill,” he said.
However, a former Additional Solicitor General of India said that in his view GST should be brought as financial bill. “The propriety demands that such an important bill should be brought as a financial bill. There is form and there is substance of the GST bill. People are discussing the form as they are flexing it as political issues.”
He felt that if the government felt an adverse thing in the Rajya Sabha it can any way ratify it through joint sitting of the Parliament.
