[1. The LBA Bill has just sailed through the RajyaSabha, after the Modi government in a major climbdown restored its original character reversing its earlier stand of not incorporating Assam. That's all for the good. 2. The Real Estate Bill has eventually been sent to the Rajya Sabha Select Committee. The government stood rather helpless. 3. The GST Bill has been cleared by the Lok Sabha. No major surprise. It still faces the acid test in the Rajya Sabha.]
I/III. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rajya-sabha-passes-bill-to-ratify-lba-with-bangladesh/article7177102.ece Updated: May 6, 2015 17:57 IST Bill to ratify LBA with Bangladesh passed in Rajya Sabha SMRITI KAK RAMACHANDRAN External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speaks in the Rajya Sabha in New Delhi on Wednesday. Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj won the day for the government by reaching out to the Opposition In a rare display of bonhomie and unanimity, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday cleared the Constitution amendment bill to enable the ratification of Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh. Even as discord between the Opposition and the Government marked the day in the Lok Sabha, there was complete agreement in the Upper House, where the Bill was passed with a historic unanimity, with 180 members giving their nod to the Bill hanging fire since 1974. Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj won the day for the government by reaching out to the Opposition -- she credited the UPA government for introducing the Bill -- and assuring Members that the government will rehabilitate those who wish to relocate from the enclaves in Bangladesh to India. The Opposition was lavish in its praise for Ms. Swaraj for her "honest" admission of presenting a Bill that was introduced by the UPA and the opposed by the BJP, TMC and the AGP. Earlier while presenting the Bill, Ms. Swaraj said her party was opposed to the Bill when it was introduced in Parliament in December 2013, because the BJP was of the view that the Bill had not taken Assam's views into consideration. She said the TMC, which has now extended support to the issue, was also concerned about the impact of the agreement on West Bengal. She also clarified that the BJP had initially decided to go ahead with the agreement, leaving Assam out of the discussions, but the government changed its views after subsequent meetings with leaders from other political parties who wanted Assam to be included. II/III. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/real-estate-bill-sent-to-select-committee-of-rajya-sabha/544077-3.html Real Estate Bill sent to select committee of Rajya Sabha Press Trust of India @ibnlive New Delhi: A united Opposition on Wednesday forced Government to send the controversial Real Estate Bill that seeks to regulate realty business, to a 21-member select committee of Rajya Sabha, which has been asked to submit its report by the first week of the Monsoon Session. After trying twice in this session to take up the bill for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha where it is not in a position to get it passed due to lack of numbers, the government on Wednesday brought a motion to refer the bill to Select Committee, chaired by BJP member Anil Madhav Dave. The other members of the Select Committee include Mansukh L Mandaviya, Shamsher Singh Manhas (all BJP),Shantaram Naik, M V Rajeev Gowda, Kumari Selja (all Cong), Naresh Agrawal (SP), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Md Nadimul Haque (TMC), A W Rabi Bernard (AIADMK), Munquad Ali (BSP), Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M), A U Singh Deo (BJD), C M Ramesh (TDP), Majeed Memon (NCP), Dr K P Ramalingam (DMK), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Nazir Ahmed Laway (PDP), D Kupendra Reddy (JD-S) and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Nominated). Real Estate Bill sent to select committee of Rajya Sabha After trying twice in this session to take up the bill for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha where it is not in a position to get it passed due to lack of numbers, the government on Wednesday brought a motion to refer the bill to Select Committee, chaired by BJP member Anil Madhav Dave. #real estate bill #rajya sabha #anil madhav dave #m venkaiah naidu Moving the motion, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government had brought the bill earlier in this session after taking the view of all stakeholders. However, amid lot of criticism the bill was delayed even after the recommendations of the Standing Committee. Noting that a larger number of members in Upper House, wanted that the bill to be sent to Select Committee, Naidu said he has accepted the suggestions of his "honourable colleagues". CPI-M had earlier proposed K N Balagopal's name for the Select Committee. However, as he did not want to become a member, he was replaced by Ritabrata Banerjee. This prompted Deputy Chairman P J Kurien to remark: "I do not know why does he not want to be in the committee. Usually members want to be in Committee." On Tuesday the bill was put off indefinitely after a united opposition in the Upper House insisted on sending it to a Select Committee. Earlier on April 29 also, the government was forced to defer the bill after opposition insisted on sending it to a Select Committee for proper scrutiny. Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue on Saturday after a meeting with flat owners and had dubbed the bill as "pro-builders", following which Congress further toughened its stand on the issue. III. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/lok-sabha-passes-gst-constitutional-amendment-bill_1376835.html May 06, 2015, 10.09 PM IST | Source: CNBC-TV18 Lok Sabha passes GST Constitutional Amendment Bill The Lower House or the Lok Sabha passed the Goods and Service Tax, or the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill on Wednesday amid furore in the Parliament with the Congress staging a walkout. The Lok Sabha today passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill that will bring in the goods and services tax (GST), a single indirect tax that will come in place of a number of central- and state-level taxes and levies. The bill was passed after division, with 352 members voting in favour of the bill and 37 against. Speaking in Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed upon the need for the bill to become law, saying the ambitious tax reform, which has been 12 years in the making, will remove the cascading effect of the current tax system, boost compliance, ease doing business and spur growth by creating a national market. **The bill, however, still needs to pass muster in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling BJP is heavily outnumbered, and in a sign of the stance it will take there, the principal opposition Congress staged a walkout while voting in the LS was on*** [emphasis added. The Congress, which tried to push through the GST when it was in power, has said it supports the tax in principle but has asked the government to refer the changes made by it to the Congress' version to a standing committee for review. The government has about a week to try and push the bill in the Rajya Sabha (whose current session ends on May 13), and experts said its aim to roll out the tax by April 1, 2016, may be jeopardized if the bill is not cleared in the current session. ' *'Will boost growth'* "It is a good beginning but it was expected to be passed in the Lok Sabha. The big problem will be the Rajya Sabha. Then, of course, it has to be passed by several states, which I don't think will be difficult with NDA governments ruling in many states," Godrej Group chief Adi Godrej told CNBC-TV18. A strong votary of the reform, Godrej reiterated his view that the GST had the potential to add about 2 percent to the country's GDP growth and said its rollout could help the country achieve double-digit growth in fiscal year 2017. Experts though have reckoned that, in order to bring states onboard, the central government's decision to leave out lucrative items such as alcohol and petroleum products out of the tax's ambit will not just render it flawed but would also lead to a self-defeating outcome: a high GST rate. But Godrej said that even without including products such as petroleum, the GST will be beneficial for the economy and that these products could be added to the basket later by a vote of the GST council (comprising the Union and state finance ministers). *Revenue-neutral rate* The revenue-neutral rate (the GST rate which would cause no loss to the overall tax collection because of removal of other taxes), which an expert panel has said could be as high as 27 percent, should be kept at below 20 percent, Deloitte senior director Saloni Roy told the channel. However, she added that even the final tax rate turned out to be that high, the current system levies overall tax at an even higher rate: "[Not counting other taxes] Excise itself is at 12.5 percent, VAT could be 12-15 percent." There are also a number of other issues within the GST framework as it currently stands, such as Jaitley's latest proposal to levy an additional 1 percent tax on 'supply' of inter-state goods to make up for states' loss, pointed out Bipin Sapra of EY. "However, after bringing in the GST, a lot can be done [later] within the scope of the Constitutional Amendment Bill," he said. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. 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