CHAPTER - 15

FINANCE BILL, 1977 - DEBATE ON AMENDMENTS RECOMMENDED BY RAJYA SABHA

Lok Sabha , 2 August 1977

EDITORIAL NOTE

This Debate took place in the background of certain Amendments to the Finance Bill recommended by the Rajya Sabha. It was a rare occasion for Lok Sabha to consider such amendments.

Speaking on the occasion, Chavan  who had handled Constitutional issues as the Union Home Minister expressed his views on the importance of Rajya Sabha. According to him there was no doubt that in the matters of Money bills, Lok Sabha was supreme. At the same time, the importance of the Rajya Sabha must not be under-estimated. The Upper House essentially represents all the States and views expressed by the Members are the views of States. He advised the Government not to treat the recommendations as a party issue.

Highlights of this speech are the analysis of the Capital gain tax, of the closely held companies, problems of sick industries. Views expressed by Chavan exhibit his grasp of economic matters and realistic approach, based on experience.

Shri Y. B. Chavan : Mr. speaker, sir, I am participating in the discussion on the motion moved by the hon. Finance Minister, and I must say that, person-ally, I am not surprised to see the motion because I was expecting some such move on the part of the Government. That is why I am getting confirmed in my fears that Government does not really need any cooperation from the apposition. I was hoping against hope that, perhaps, they would be keen to get cooperation from us at least on issues and matters in which the people’s interests are involved; at least we expected that on these they would think it is necessary that they should consider all the serious views that we are expressing on this side. If at all they wanted to discuss any issues, possibly this was the occasion when they could have said, “well, here is a view expressed, not by an individual Member but a view expressed by chamber of Parliament, a House of parliament.” And this house of Parliament, namely the Rajya Sabha, is a very important House. I am quite aware of the Constitutional position regarding the supremacy of Lok Sabha in the matter of money Bills; I need not be told about that Constitutional position. We certainly know the constitutional position and we can also resort to the Constitutional methods. But that certainly would lead to unnecessary confrontation which we do not want. The Rajya Sabha, as contemplated under the Indian Constitution, cannot be compared to any other upper chamber in any other Constitution in the world.