Govt determined to push Coal, Insurance Bill despite political obstructionism: Arun Jaitley

The Insurance Bill, which was approved by the Cabinet on December 10, has been pending with the Rajya Sabha which was stalled most of the last week due to the stand-off between the government and the Opposition over the religious conversion issue. So also the Coal Bill, which remains stuck in the Upper House though unanimously passed by the Lok Sabha. “All doubts pertaining to it were cleared, but it was not allowed to come on the agenda of Upper House for discussion,” Jaitley said.

The Bill was to be taken up Tuesday for passage in the Upper house. With the government unwilling to give in to the Opposition demand for a reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the conversion issue, the much-awaited Bill, which seeks to increase foreign holding in the insurance companies in India to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent, is unlikely to be passed in the current session.

The government has been keen to push through the insurance reform before the visit of US President Barack Obama in January as the chief guest on the Republic Day.

“We are trying to open up as many sectors as possible and the initial response has been encouraging… Insurance, we are waiting to open up. Political obstructionism is being used to ensure that it doesn’t come into the agenda. The government is extremely determined to go ahead with this reform and will not allow a Parliamentary disturbance to obstruct or delay a reform of this kind,” Jaitley said.

Without naming the Trinamool Congress party, Jaitley said that the members of “one political party” are allegedly involved in a chit fund scam, and are therefore trying to divert attention by creating obstruction in the Upper House. While it has an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha, the NDA government does not enjoy a majority in the Upper House, making it difficult to push through several pending legislation.

However, taking a dig on the Opposition, the finance minister said with more state assemblies going to polls, the ability of the members in the Rajya Sabha to create obstruction will get “further diluted.” He also took a jibe at the Left parties, and said that after Cuba, the Rajya Sabha seems to be their last bastion.

Listing out the challenges facing the government in the coming fiscal, Jaitley who will be presenting his first full budget in February, said that while the new government is clear that the course adopted is unalterable, the country needs a “shared vision” to achieve 9-10 per cent growth rate. “The clear choice before us is, either we reform or we miss the bus once again… next year is going to be a challenging one where we have to first cross the 6 per cent mark in terms of growth rate, improve upon our revenues, give a greater life as far as our citizens are concerned and in that environment of enthusiasm that is created, more and more changes that will lead us to double digit target,” he said.

Jaitley also lambasted the previous government for framing legislation riddled with provisions capable of causing “serious damage”, including the section 212(6) of the Companies Act which had a bail provision similar to the stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the Land Acquisition law that bars any acquired land to be used for private education institute, hotel etc. On taxation, he said that the new government has “eliminated” the fear of retrospective taxation, which had brought a bad name for the country.