No let up in House logjam, Lok Sabha passes Competition (Amendment) Bill

When the Lower House met in the morning, the Congress, DMK, BRS and Left members, who had come to the House clad in black as a mark of protest, rushed to the well of the House raising slogans and holding banners that read “On a false case, MP disqualified”; “Save Democracy”; “Democracy in Danger”; and “We want JPC”.

Bhartruhari Mahtab, who was in the Chair at the time, asked the members to take the seat and allow the Question Hour. Although he called for the Question Hour to begin, the MPs continued with sloganeering. In two minutes, Mahtab adjourned the House till 12 noon amid the noisy protest.

When it met again at 12 noon, BJP’s Rama Devi was in chair and despite the ruckus, she made the ministers to lay the papers listed in the agenda on the table. Then Sitharaman moved the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, for consideration and passage. The Bill was passed with amendments in 20 minutes.

The Corporate Affairs ministry has made certain amendments to the original Bill. One of the changes is with respect to the turnover that will be considered for the imposition of penalty in case of competition law violations. “… turnover means global turnover derived from all products and services by a person or an enterprise,” as per the amendments that were approved by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Another amendment is that the CCI has to form a prima-facie opinion about a filing related to a combination within 30 days of receiving the filing.

Currently, the regulator can form a prima-facie opinion within 30 working days of receiving a combination filing. In competition law parlance, combinations refer to mergers and acquisitions, and deals beyond a certain threshold require the approval of the CCI.

Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav introduced  the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, that seeks to bring clarity to the country’s forest conservation law and exempt certain categories of land from its purview to fast-track strategic and security-related projects.

The Bill was then sent to a joint committee of both the Houses for discussion. The committee consists of 19 Lok Sabha members, 10 Rajya Sabha members and two members to be nominated by the Lok Sabha speaker.

According to the government, the Bill seeks to clarify the scope of applicability of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, on various lands. It seeks to broaden the horizons of the Act, keeping in view India’s aim to increase forest cover for creation of a carbon sink of additional 2.5-3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030.

The Bill proposes to insert a preamble to the Act to encompass the country’s rich tradition of preserving forests, their bio-diversity and tackling climate change challenges within its ambit. It provides for terms and conditions including the condition of planting trees to compensate for felling of trees undertaken on the land while considering the proposed relaxations under the Act.